PLUS: The Covid-19 headlines you need to know, a distraction, and something to read.
By Eve Sneider | 06.16.22 |
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| A programming note: The Coronavirus Update will be off Monday for Juneteenth. See you next Thursday! FDA advisors back shots for young kids, Shanghai and Beijing reimplement public health measures, and Dr. Fauci tests positive. But first, here's this week's big story: | |
Official cases hold steady in the US and worldwide, but undercounting continues After a steep uptick this spring, confirmed Covid cases in the US seem to be leveling off, though hospitalizations are still going up and new Omicron variants are becoming more prevalent. Still, experts warn that cases are surely being dramatically undercounted, given that many people are testing for Covid at home, which means those numbers might not be officially reported. Worldwide, cases continue to fall but deaths are increasing for the first time in five weeks, according to new data from the WHO. But officials there add that those numbers are likely also undercounts, because many countries have reduced surveillance and testing. The US has also been cutting back on programming and funding for tracking this disease, creating a situation where it may be difficult to keep up with an ever-evolving virus, experts warn. But there are models for how officials might attempt to track and curtail outbreaks more effectively, such as last year's incident in Provincetown, where people chose to collaborate and act quickly as the virus ripped through their community, and kept its damage to a minimum. | |
Headlines The FDA's vaccine advisors voted yesterday to recommend Pfizer and Moderna's shots for young children. This means that if additional regulatory steps are cleared, the vaccines could be available as soon as next week. (Associated Press) Less than two weeks after Shanghai and Beijing seemed to have the pandemic under control, China's two largest cities are once again implementing public health restrictions, including conducting mass testing. (ABC) More than two years after the start of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci tested positive for the first time yesterday. He reportedly has mild symptoms and is being treated with Paxlovid. (CNN) In Portugal, a popular tourist destination in the EU, cases are ticking upward after pandemic restrictions were lifted earlier this year. The country now has the second-highest case count in the world. (Al Jazeera) On top of dealing with a wave of Covid-19 cases, North Korea has reported an outbreak of an unidentified intestinal disease, further straining its medical system. (BBC) | |
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| At its heart, politics is about communal organization. And those communities often include many more living beings than just humans. What would it look like to factor all of those entities into how we coexist and govern each other? | |
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