Biden has been in quarantine at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Positive reaction The man, who showed mild symptoms on Wednesday, became the most high-profile example of the virus’s spread. At a campaign event in Pennsylvania on July 7, Biden said Donald Trump “I ended the pandemic. He didn’t,” he declared.
His administration is no longer dealing with the coronavirus. Public health emergency — Instead, treat it as a regular respiratory virus. Annual vaccinations This strategy reflects the fact that SARS-CoV-2 has become established as a common pathogen that is no longer overwhelming hospitals and health systems. Strong measures To contain infections at an early stage of the pandemic.
“COVID is not gone. It’s probably going to be around forever, and we’re going to see waves of it, usually two or three times a year,” said Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health. Got off He served as the White House coronavirus coordinator last year.
“This raises the question of how worried we should be,” Jha added. “It sounds scary, but for most people it’s not.”
At 81, Biden is in the age group considered most at risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19, and older adults are more likely to experience milder symptoms if fully vaccinated. Antiviral treatment Experts say Biden was vaccinated early on in the illness. Biden began his Paxlovid regimen on Wednesday and received the latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine in September. White House officials did not respond to questions about whether Biden had received the second dose of the latest vaccine recommended for seniors.
Underway Republican National Convention The event in Milwaukee was attended by an estimated 50,000 people, many of whom were not wearing masks, putting them at risk of COVID-19 infection in the crowded arena (masks are also a rarity at Biden campaign events).
Phil Griffin, a convention delegate from Winchester, Virginia, said he brought two masks in case organizers required them, but he wasn’t worried about COVID-19 even after Biden tested positive.
“We haven’t heard of any symptoms in the delegations around us, in Virginia, in Michigan, in Ohio, in Louisiana,” Griffin said. “So I think we’re just as fortunate as the president is,” he added, referring to Trump’s narrow escape from a would-be assassin’s bullet. “We’re all fortunate to be in good health at this point, as far as we know.”
Meanwhile, medically vulnerable Americans Another Summer There is a risk of coronavirus infection.
Elizabeth Kidd watched with anxiety in late June as she began receiving daily emails from the nursing home in Northern Virginia where her mother lives, warning of a spreading outbreak that included the memory care unit where her mother is being treated for dementia.
Kidd, 52, takes medication to suppress his immune system to manage his Crohn’s disease, putting him at high risk for COVID-19. His mother, 79, has trouble remembering what COVID-19 is, so he didn’t visit her for two weeks, worried that a prolonged quarantine would make her more likely to forget him.
“The whole situation is pretty nerve-wracking,” Kidd said. “I don’t want to get COVID and I don’t want to be the person that accidentally brings it back to the memory unit.”
Luckily, her mother did not get sick, and Kidd visited her at the facility on Tuesday. There had been no cases there, but masks were still required. Kidd updated her on her grandchildren, who she doesn’t always remember are her own, and reminded her that the coronavirus is like a highly contagious flu.
COVID-19 infections surge Every summer Experts attribute the increase since the pandemic began to increased travel, large gatherings such as weddings and conferences, the emergence of new variants and even hot weather that keeps people indoors, where the virus can spread more easily.
“COVID-19 transmission is less likely when you’re outdoors, but with the extreme heat we’re experiencing, especially in the Southwest, people are spending more time indoors,” said Andrew Pecos, a professor of microbiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who specializes in respiratory viruses like COVID-19.
The ongoing coronavirus surge KP Variant Called LB.1, it is closely related to FLiRT and accounted for 85% of new cases as of early July. CDC Estimates: These mutations make the virus easier to spread and more efficiently infect people with some immunity than previous variants, but they do not appear to cause more severe disease.
Wastewater Scana private initiative that tracks municipal wastewater data, found a 54 percent increase in copies of viral RNA per gram of sewage solids between June 30 and July 12. Virus levels were high in most areas and moderate in the Midwest.
“You may not want your summer travel plans to be ruined or affected by illness.” “People with weakened immune systems may want to consider wearing masks or be cautious about going to crowded places,” said Dr. David G. Schneider, professor of environmental engineering at Stanford University and lead investigator for WastewaterSCAN.
Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the increase in virus in wastewater shouldn’t be considered in isolation, and that no significant increases in severe outcomes such as hospitalizations or deaths have been seen.
Although the new coronavirus does not cause hospitalizations or deaths as frequently as in the past, Mild cases Still, it can be confusing and cause more severe illness than patients expect.
Jay Brodber hasn’t been on a plane since the pandemic began, regularly wears a mask indoors and got the latest coronavirus vaccine in April. He hoped he could continue to avoid catching the virus during a two-week road trip through the Northeast. But while in New York, Brodber, 74, started experiencing fever and chills on July 8 and tested positive the next day.
Brodber cut his trip short by a week and drove eight hours back to his home in Toronto, where he said he was suffering from the worst sore throat of his life but felt better after taking Paxlovid and a steroid nasal spray.
The summer COVID-19 wave comes at a tricky time for public health officials who have made a fall vaccination campaign their mainstay of the response, with current vaccines already struggling to function. XBB VariationsThe updated vaccine won’t be on the market for at least another month, leaving patients and providers to discuss the trade-offs of getting the older vaccine. You can either get the shot now that still offers some protection or wait for a new version.
Reinfection poses an ongoing health risk, especially for people in high-risk groups: people with severe COVID-19 are more likely to be hospitalized again with COVID-19. Research Presentation It was published in the journal Communications Medicine earlier this month.
Prolonged symptoms Long CoronaAlthough it can occur in milder cases, it is one of the most confounding outcomes. Virus. Long Covid is Less common Although hospitalizations are declining, studies have shown that severe illness is a major risk factor.
Public health officials tout that Americans now have the tools to fight the coronavirus, but those tools are becoming harder to access. The federal government has halted widespread distribution of free masks and Test kitsThe federal Bridge Access Program, which provides coronavirus vaccines free to the uninsured, ends in August.
Health officials recommend that people at high risk If you have severe COVID-19, get tested when you develop symptoms and, as Biden is doing, take Paxlobidi early on to stop the virus from replicating.
But other Americans are having an even harder time getting Paxlovid than the president, with many pharmacies out of stock of the drug due to low demand so far. And those who do manage to get their hands on the drugs can be faced with shockingly high bills.
Robin DeChabert, 27, was told she was taking Paxlovid when she received a prescription for the drug. The Virginia Beach resident went to the emergency room on Sunday with trouble breathing and a painful cough. She received the medication for free because the federal government covered the costs during her two previous bouts with coronavirus, but she believes the antiviral treatment helped her recover faster.
However, this time when my sister went to pick up her prescription, The pharmacy charged her $1,700, which she couldn’t pay. Her sister left the store without buying the medicine. DeChavert will be uninsured until she starts a service-industry job next month.
“It remains baffling that a drug that was readily available to so many people two years ago is now too expensive and inaccessible for so many Americans,” said DeChabert, who got his Paxlobidi from a friend. “No one should have to go into medical debt in order to survive.”
Pfizer, the manufacturer of Paxlovid, Patient Assistance Programs It covers out-of-pocket costs for people without health insurance or who have government insurance, and provides subsidies of up to $1,500 in copayments for those with private insurance.
Pfizer spokeswoman Kit Longley said it takes minutes to sign up for both programs and access the e-vouchers, but some providers and pharmacies aren’t telling patients about them, and DeChavert said she was never informed that assistance was available.
Laura Vozzella contributed to this report.
