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Fauci clashes with Rand Paul at Senate hearing as daily Covid cases soar
Fauci clashes with Rand Paul at Senate hearing as daily Covid cases soarThe daily infection rate hit a new record of 1.35m while 145,982 people were in hospital with coronavirus on Monday
Covid loses 90% of ability to infect within minutes – study
02:21The US recorded a record number of hospitalisations due to Covid-19, the Biden administration said, as daily infections soared to more than 1.35m. Nonetheless, politics dominated a Senate hearing on the pandemic on Tuesday, as Republicans attempted to use the disease for political gain.Covid live: France confirms record 368,149 new cases as Italy reports all-time high of 220,532 new casesRead moreRand Paul of Kentucky clashed once again with Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser.“In usual fashion, Senator, you are distorting everything about me,” Fauci said. “You keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance.”Paul, who has repeatedly used public health hearings for political grandstanding and launching personal attacks on Fauci, variously accused the immunologist of working to smear scientists and being responsible for school closures, while reiterating rightwing theories about the origin of Covid-19.Fauci has been subjected to death threats and said his family had been harassed “because people are lying about me”.He held up a printout of a page on Paul’s campaign website, which had the banner “Fire Dr Fauci” next to an invitation to donate to Paul’s re-election effort.“You are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain,” Fauci said.He also described the arrest in Iowa in December of a man who police said planned to kill Fauci and other powerful figures and was carrying an assault rifle.“What happens when [Paul] gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue,” Fauci said, “is that it kindles the crazies out there and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me.”There were 145,982 people hospitalised with coronavirus in the US on Monday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Reuters reported that the previous high was 132,051, set in January 2021.According to Reuters there were 1.35m new Covid infections on Monday, also a record. Measures vary and observers point out that many home tests are not officially logged. But NBC News reported at least 1,343,167 new infections.The highly contagious Omicron variant has seen hospitalisations double in three weeks. The seven-day average for new cases has tripled in two weeks to more than 700,000 a day.Large numbers of Covid cases tend to be reported on Mondays due to many states not reporting over the weekend, but the 1.35m total reported this week comfortably outstripped the previous record of 1.03m, recorded on Monday 3 January.Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC and Wisconsin have reported record levels of cases recently.Only seven states have not set records for cases in 2022: Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio and Wyoming, Reuters said.At the Senate hearing, Fauci was asked for an update on the effect of the virus on vaccinated people compared with unvaccinated people. He reiterated that getting vaccinated was the best way to avoid serious illness.Fauci said unvaccinated people were 10 times more likely to test positive for Covid-19, 17 times more likely to be hospitalised and 20 times more likely to die.As cases and hospitalisations soar, health authorities around the US are increasingly taking the once unthinkable step of allowing nurses and other workers infected with Covid to stay on the job if they have mild symptoms or none at all, the Associated Press reported.The move is a reaction to the severe hospital staffing shortages and crushing caseloads that Omicron is causing.California health authorities announced over the weekend that hospital staff members who test positive but are symptom-free can continue working. Some hospitals in Rhode Island and Arizona have given employees similar guidelines.In December, the CDC said healthcare workers who have no symptoms can return to work after seven days with a negative test but that the isolation time “can be cut further if there are staffing shortages”.In Tuesday’s hearing, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), clarified federal guidance. She said fully vaccinated people exposed to the virus do not need to stay at home unless they develop symptoms, but should wear a mask, get tested and avoid travel until after day 10.The threat of Omicron and number of new cases has led to an increased demand for tests, with long lines and shortages around the country.On Monday the White House said insurance companies will be required to cover eight over-the-counter at-home tests per person each month starting on 15 January.In December, Joe Biden said half a billion at home tests would be sent free to Americans, beginning in January.TopicsCoronavirusOmicron variantUS politicsnewsReuse this content More - in US Politics
Biden health chief endures Fox News grilling over mixed Covid messaging
Biden health chief endures Fox News grilling over mixed Covid messagingAs supreme court ponders workplace vaccine mandate, CDC director Rochelle Walensky seeks to set record straight Facing accusations of confusing messaging about the Omicron Covid surge, a senior Biden administration official was forced on to the back foot on Sunday by a supreme court justice’s mistaken remark about hospitalisations among children.Omicron could be ‘first ray of light’ towards living with CovidRead moreDuring oral arguments over a vaccinations mandate for private employers, the liberal justice Sonya Sotomayor said on Friday the US had “over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition and many on ventilators”.Reporters were swift to point out she was wrong. Though concern about children and Omicron is widespread, the Washington Post cited official data in saying there were “about 5,000 children hospitalised … either with suspected Covid or a confirmed laboratory test”.According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 836,000 people have died of Covid in the US. More than 206 million Americans, or 62.5% of the eligible population, are considered fully vaccinated.The Covid response has been dogged by resistance to vaccines and other public health measures stoked by politicians and rightwing media prominently including Fox News.Nonetheless, critics charge that official messaging has become muddled, not least over the recent decision to cut recommended quarantine from 10 days to five, and confusion about when or if the infected should test again.Earlier this week, it was reported that Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was undergoing media training. She also told told reporters she was “committed to improve” communications.Walensky was interviewed on Fox News Sunday. In Bret Baier, she faced perhaps Fox’s toughest interviewer, after the departure of Chris Wallace. It was not an easy experience.Baier asked: “The supreme court is in the process of dealing with this big issue about mandates. Do you feel it is the responsibility of the CDC director to correct a very big mischaracterisation by one of the supreme court justices?”“Yeah,” said Walensky. “Here’s what I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you that right now, if you’re unvaccinated, you’re 17 times more likely to be in the hospital and 20 times more likely to die than if you’re boosted.“And so my responsibility is to provide guidance and recommendations to protect the American people. Those recommendations strongly recommend vaccination for our children above the age of five and boosting for everyone above the age of 18 if they’re eligible.”Baier asked if the administration knew how many children were on ventilators.“I do not have that off the top of my head,” Walensky said. “But what I can say is I don’t believe there are any in many of these hospitals who are vaccinated.“So really, the highest risk of being on a ventilator for a child is if you’re unvaccinated. We also have recent data out just this week that’s demonstrated that dangerous MIS-C syndrome that we’re seeing in children, 91% protection if you’ve been vaccinated.”Baier said: “The risk of death or serious illness in children is still very small, right?”Walensky said: “Comparatively, the risk of death is small. But of course, you know, children are not supposed to die. So you know, if we have a child who is sick with Covid-19, we want to protect them.”Baier said: “Officially, you emphasise that one of your primary goals was to restore public trust, but do you think it’s fair to say that the trust and confidence of the public has gone down with the CDC?”“You know,” Walensky said, “this is hard. We have ever-evolving science with an ever-evolving variant and my job is to provide updated advice in the context of rapidly rising cases. And that is what we’ve done and I’m here to explain it to the American people and I am committed to continuing to do so and to continuing to improve.”Baier said: “We appreciate you coming on, we really do. Just getting facts out there.”Most observers think the supreme court, tilted 6-3 in favour of conservatives after three appointments under Donald Trump, seems likely to strike down the workplace mandate. The rule is due to come into effect on Monday.Baier said: “The questioning in the supreme court also said that Omicron was as deadly as Delta. That is not true, right?”Omicron drives Covid surge but New York a long way from pandemic’s early daysRead moreWalensky said: “We are starting to see data from other countries that indicate on a person-by-person basis it may not be. However, given the volume of cases that we’re seeing with Omicron we very well may see death rates rise dramatically.”Asked if mandates for private employers or government employees including members of the armed forces were necessary if prior infection conferred protection, Walensky said: “I think the thing that’s most disruptive to any business or industry has to have half their workforce out because they’re sick with Covid.”Such is the case in New York City, where essential services are struggling for staff.“We have seen with the Omicron variant,” Walensky added, “that prior infection protects you less well than it had … with prior variants.“Right now, I think the most important thing to do is to protect Americans. We do that by getting them vaccinated and getting them boosted.”TopicsBiden administrationUS politicsUS supreme courtLaw (US)Vaccines and immunisationOmicron variantnewsReuse this content More
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California prosecutor who campaigned against vaccine mandates dies of Covid
California prosecutor who campaigned against vaccine mandates dies of Covid Kelly Ernby, who recently ran for the state assembly, was unvaccinated at the time of her death, husband says A deputy district attorney from California who regularly spoke out against vaccine mandates has died of complications from Covid-19.Kelly Ernby, 46, a prosecutor from Orange county, southern California, who recently ran for the state assembly, died after contracting the virus, her family and friends have said.According to Ernby’s husband, Axel Mattias Ernby, Kelly Ernby was unvaccinated at the time of her death.“She was NOT vaccinated. That’s the problem,” Axel Ernby said on social media posts.A month before her death, Kelly Ernby spoke out against vaccine mandates at a rally outside Irvine city hall. The protest was organized by chapters of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization, representing members at California State University, Fullerton and University of California Irvine.“There’s nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now,” Ernby said, according to the Daily Titan, a student newspaper.On her personal Facebook, Ernby also spoke out against Covid vaccine mandates, writing in August that “thevaccine is not the cure to Covid, and mandates won’t work”.Before the pandemic, Ernby also denounced vaccine mandates. At an online town hall in 2019, Ernby said she opposed a new state law that would tighten vaccine rules for California school children.“My fundamental belief is that government should be very small and I don’t believe in mandates,” said Ernby then.“I don’t think that the government should be involved in mandating what vaccines people are taking,” she said. “I think that’s a decision between doctors and their patients … If the government is going to mandate vaccines, what else are they going to mandate?”News of Ernby’s death has gained widespread attention online, underscoring tensions between those who oppose vaccine mandates as a form of government overreach and others who see it as critical protection against Covid and the way to end the pandemic.Among the posted condolences to Ernby’s friends and families, some online commenters blamed Ernby for her own death and posted replies about Ernby’s anti-vaccine-mandate stance.Ernby lived in Huntington Beach, California, an hour outside of Los Angeles, where a number of anti vaccine-mandate rallies have taken place.She had worked in the district attorney’s office since 2011 and specialized in environmental and consumer law, according to a statement posted by the Orangecounty district attorney, Todd Spitzer.“Kelly was an incredibly vibrant and passionate attorney who cared deeply about the work that we do as prosecutors – and deeply about the community we all fight so hard to protect,” said Spitzer in the statement following Ernby’s death.In 2019, Ernby ran for the California state assembly and lost in the 2020 primary to fellow Republican politician Diane Dixon.Ernby later was elected as an Orange county GOP central committee member in 2020 but died halfway through her four-year term.Vaccine mandates have continued to receive pushback, despite soaring cases of the Omicron variant.The Mayo Clinic, the non-profit medical center, fired about 700 out of 70,000 employees who refused to comply with the mandatory vaccination policy, reported NBC news.Employees were told to receive their first dose of the vaccine by Monday or get a medical or religious exemption. Staff who had already received their first jab were told to not delay getting their second shot.“While Mayo Clinic is saddened to lose valuable employees, we need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors and communities safe,” said the clinic in a statement, also confirming that 99% of Mayo Clinic employees across all locations complied with the mandate.TopicsCaliforniaUS politicsOmicron variantVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More
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Marjorie Taylor Greene a ‘Democrat or an idiot’, fellow Republican says
Marjorie Taylor Greene a ‘Democrat or an idiot’, fellow Republican saysCongressman Dan Crenshaw throws barb at congresswoman in spat over his support for using Fema to operate Covid testing sites The extremist Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene “might be a Democrat – or just an idiot” – according to a fellow hardline conservative.US reports global record of more than 1m daily Covid casesRead moreDan Crenshaw, a Texas congressman and former Navy Seal, threw the barb back at the Georgia congresswoman in a spat over his support for using the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to operate Covid testing sites.The US is experiencing a crippling surge of Covid cases thanks to the infectious Omicron variant, with more than 1m recorded on Monday and lack of access to testing hampering state and federal responses.Greene has consistently spread Covid conspiracy theories. On Sunday, she was permanently suspended from Twitter, for spreading misinformation.That drew support from Donald Trump, who without discernible irony called Twitter “a disgrace to democracy”, said Greene had “a huge constituency of honest, patriotic, hard-working people”, and added: “Keep fighting, Marjorie!”Regardless, on Monday Greene was temporarily suspended from Facebook, for spreading misinformation.She took aim at Crenshaw on Instagram, writing: “No Fema should not set up testing sites to check for Omicron sneezes, coughs and runny noses.“And we don’t need Fema in hospitals, they should hire back all the unvaccinated [healthcare workers] they fired.“He needs to stop calling himself conservative, he’s hurting our brand.”Crenshaw responded on Instagram, saying: “Hey, Marjorie, if suggesting we should follow Trump policy instead of Biden mandates makes you mad, then you might be a Democrat – or just an idiot.”Greene has been repeatedly fined for failing to wear a mask on the floor of the House of Representatives.Crenshaw, however, has his own history of provocative behaviour.As the Houston Chronicle pointed out, “Before calling for federally funded testing sites, Crenshaw used to share wild posts to social media, before Greene took office, including posting action movie-style videos of him beating up Antifa members.”More than 827,000 people have died in the US from Covid-19.TopicsRepublicansUS politicsOmicron variantCoronavirusnewsReuse this content More
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Fauci: hospitalization figures a better guide to Omicron than case count
Fauci: hospitalization figures a better guide to Omicron than case count But government’s top medical adviser warns public not to be fooled by data suggesting variant lacks severity of earlier variants The US government’s top medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, has joined a growing body of experts who say hospitalisation figures form a better guide to the severity of the Omicron coronavirus variant than the traditional case-count of new infections.Teens and young adults driving record Covid cases in US, health officials sayRead moreReferring to the Omicron surge in the US as a “tsunami”, Fauci also cautioned the public not to be fooled by preliminary data suggesting the variant lacks the severity of earlier Covid-19 variants, such as Delta.“You have a virus that looks like it might be less severe, at least from data we’ve gathered from South Africa, the UK and even some from preliminary data from here in the US,” he told CNN’s State of the Union.“It’s a very interesting, somewhat complicated issue … so many people are getting infected that the net amount, the total amount of people that will require hospitalisation, might be up. We can’t be complacent in these reports. We’re still going to get a lot of hospitalisations.”On ABC’s This Week, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked if it was time to focus less on just the case count, which has soared close to 500,000 reported new daily infections. A number of experts have questioned if such reports cause unnecessary worry, and suggest deaths and hospitalisation data should better inform mitigation efforts.“The answer is, overall, yes,” Fauci said. “This is particularly relevant if you’re having an infection that is much, much more asymptomatic and minimally symptomatic, particularly in people who are vaccinated and boosted. “The real bottom line that you want to be concerned about is, are we getting protected by the vaccines from severe disease leading to hospitalisation?”The Biden administration has made improving vaccination rates a priority but concedes progress is slower than it would like. Fewer than 25% of US children are vaccinated, pediatric hospital admissions are surging and nationally only 62% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated with barely a third receiving a booster. “I’m still very concerned about the tens of millions of people who are not vaccinated at all because even though many of them are going to get asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic, a fair number of them are going to get severe disease,” Fauci said.Surging infection rates, Fauci told CNN, will likely cause disruption to everyday life, already evidenced in pressure on healthcare in several states and in other areas such as education and public transport. A number of universities and school districts will begin 2022 online and in New York City several subway lines have been suspended through staff shortages.Fauci said those concerns contributed to the decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week to reduce the recommended isolation period for those who have tested positive but are asymptomatic from 10 days to five.“You’re certainly gonna see stresses on the system, the system being people with any kind of jobs, particularly with critical jobs, to keep society functioning normally. We already know there are reports from fire departments, from police departments in different cities, that sometimes 30% of the people are ill.“The CDC is trying to get a position where people without symptoms who are infected, that you can get them back to work a little bit earlier if they remain without symptoms.”But he rejected criticism that the change was sparked by economic pressure rather than science. “In the second half of a 10-day period, which would normally be a 10-day isolation period, the likelihood of transmissibility is considerably lower,” he said. “For that reason, the CDC made the judgement that it would be relatively low risk to get people out.“You’re right [that] people are concerned about, ‘Why not test people at that time?’ I myself feel that that’s a reasonable thing to do. I believe that the CDC soon will be coming out with more clarification of that since it obviously has generated a number of questions about that five-day period.”The new mayor of New York, Eric Adams, said he thought the city was doing “an amazing job” of reacting to the shifting challenges of the pandemic, including transportation issues and having one-fifth of police out sick.US experts question whether counting Covid cases is still the right approachRead more“We are pivoting based on where the urgency is located. We’re not taking it one-size-fits-all, we’re thinking about it and making the right moves and decisions,” he told ABC.“I was with my police commissioner. We have a 20% sick rate but now we have officers coming back after the five days.“But we can’t live through variants. We spent $11tn on Covid and we don’t have another $11tn, so our lives can’t be based on what’s the new variant. No. We have to figure out, how do we adjust?“I say to those who are not vaccinated, ‘Stop it. It’s time to get vaccinated. It’s time to have the booster shots. You’re endangering yourself and you’re endangering the public and your family as well.’”TopicsBiden administrationAnthony FauciJoe BidenUS politicsOmicron variantCoronavirusnewsReuse this content More
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New York presses ahead with New Year’s Eve party despite record Covid cases
New York presses ahead with New Year’s Eve party despite record Covid cases ‘We’re fighting our way through this,’ says outgoing mayor Bill de Blasio, but decision is in contrast to public health messaging New York City’s leaders are pushing ahead with plans for the annual New Year’s Eve party in Times Square despite record numbers of new Covid infections driven by the Omicron variant.Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is set to step down at midnight on Saturday, told NBC’s Today show that pressing ahead with the public celebration would show “that we’re moving forward, and we want to show the world that New York City is fighting our way through this.“It’s really important to not give up in the face of this,” he added.De Blasio has already scaled back celebrations from the “full-strength” celebration he originally approved. Crowds will be limited to 15,000, down from 60,000 pre-pandemic, and everyone who enters must wear a mask.But the decision to press ahead comes in contrast to public health messaging from Washington and decisions in other large, populous cities, including San Francisco and Atlanta, to cancel their events.On Wednesday, White House health advisor Dr Anthony Fauci said he approved of small, at-home New Year’s Eve gatherings among vaccinated and boosted individuals but urged Americans to cancel plans to attend larger gatherings.“If your plans are to go to a 40- to 50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year, I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that,” Fauci said at a Covid-19 briefing.De Blasio said Thursday: “Our health-care leadership believes this is the right way to do it.” He said his administration had not held discussions about canceling or reducing the “ball drop” event further.“We’ve got to send a message to the world. New York City is open,” he said, adding that the festivities at Times Square would “show the world that New York City is fighting our way through this”.Incoming mayor Eric Adams cancelled his inauguration party, but is still scheduled to take his oath in Times Square soon after the ball drop. He expressed hope on Thursday that 2022 would be “a new beginning of our resiliency”.New York governor Kathy Hochul released figures on Thursday showing that the city, state and country are all breaking records for newly confirmed Covid-19 infections. New York state has set a new high in the average number of daily reported cases for the last 11 days.Across the state, more than 7,700 are currently hospitalized with the virus and the number is increasing. The city reported a record number of new, confirmed cases – more than 39,590 – on Tuesday, according to New York state figures.“As we approach the New Year it is vitally important that we don’t let our guard down in our fight against the pandemic,” Hochul said. “We have the tools and we know what works – mask up, get vaccinated, get boosted, and exercise caution in large gatherings, especially this weekend.”The decision to press on with the Times Square party has received criticism from other elected officials. Mark Levine, who takes over as Manhattan borough president tonight, called for the event to be cancelled.“We are not doing enough to slow this,” he said on Twitter. “Now is the time to act. Time is of the essence.”That warning comes as one fifth of the city’s police force is out due to virus infections, according to NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea.Kelly Doran, an emergency physician with NYU Langone, tweeted: “Pretty unreal to me that NYC is still holding its big New Year’s Eve bash tomorrow when Covid cases are higher than ever, hospitals are having to call in visiting help & cancel elective surgeries, and FDNY is pleading with the public not to call 911.”As many as 20% of the city’s restaurants and bars are temporarily shuttered and owners report a sharp drop in trade. On Thursday, some of the thousands of tourists visiting the city for New Year said they were not unduly inconvenienced by the sharp rise in Covid infections.“We prefer to go to places where there are less people. On New Year’s eve we will stay in our hotel,” said Antonio Palmeri, visiting from Turin with friends. “But it is our dream to be in New York so we are happy to be here.”Tourists visiting the bronze charging bull on lower Wall Street on Friday said while they were anxious about the number of cases, they wanted to continue enjoying their visits.“The reality is that everyone is fatigued by the pandemic, and at this point everyone knows they should be doing what they can to stay safe, but at this point we’re in a fuck it phase,” said Ben Martin, visiting from Boston.“If the government is telling us to be less careful by cutting quarantine times in half, and we should go back to work, we’re all in the space of like whatever…We don’t have the energy to keep stressing as much.”TopicsNew YorkBill de BlasioUS politicsCoronavirusOmicron variantnewsReuse this content More
