COVID-19 News from Around the Web

While several studies, including a final report from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have concluded that remdesivir in coronavirus patients can speed the recovery process, a new study published in JAMA says it may not shorten hospital stays for all. The study, which focused on U.S. veterans who were hospitalized for COVID-19, concluded that remdesivir was not associated with improved survival, but was associated with longer hospital stays.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Thursday called for a national effort to fight misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines, urging tech companies, health care workers, journalists and everyday Americans to do more to address an “urgent threat” to public health. In a 22-page advisory, his first as President Joe Biden’s surgeon general, Murthy wrote that bogus claims have led people to reject vaccines and public health advice on masks and social distancing, undermining efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic and putting lives at risk.

As COVID-19 cases swiftly multiply in states where vaccination rates are low, businesses are stepping up to encourage vaccine-hesitant residents — including their own clients — to roll up their sleeves. It's a logical effort, health experts said, as some people who are vaccine-wary are more likely to trust information coming from a community source with whom they have a relationship than they are information from, say, a government official or pedigreed doctor.

Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government reported Wednesday. That estimate far eclipses the high of about 72,000 drug overdose deaths reached the previous year and amounts to a 29% increase. … Lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions isolated those with drug addictions and made treatment harder to get, experts said. … Fentanyl was involved in more than 60% of the overdose deaths last year, CDC data suggests.

With about a third of adults in the U.S. still completely unvaccinated, and cases of COVID-19 on the rise, the U.S. surgeon general is calling for a war against "health misinformation." On Thursday, Dr. Vivek Murthy is releasing the first surgeon general's advisory of his time serving in the Biden administration, describing the "urgent threat" posed by the rise of false information around COVID-19 — one that continues to put "lives at risk" and prolong the pandemic. Murthy says Americans must do their part to fight misinformation. "COVID has really brought into sharp focus the full extent of damage that health misinformation is doing," Murthy told NPR in an exclusive interview ahead of the advisory's release. Surgeon general's advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that demand immediate attention.

Data from overseas, particularly Britain, suggest the spread of the virus will set vaccinated and unvaccinated communities on very different paths. … In a country that should be able to end its pandemic in short order with widespread vaccination, the Delta variant is well designed to take advantage of the cultural divide.

"To date, we have not had a patient admitted to a [Department of Health Services] hospital who has been fully vaccinated, with either the J&J, Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Every single patient that we've admitted for Covid is not yet fully vaccinated," … The Department of Health Services runs four hospitals .... There are about 400 Covid-19 patients in those hospitals.

Vaccines offered powerful protection against the coronavirus in New York City, blunting the second wave of the virus and saving an estimated 8,300 lives between December of last year and July of this year, according to a new study by Yale University epidemiologists released by the city on Wednesday. … Only 1.1 percent of the 500,300 virus cases during the first six months of this year were among people who were fully vaccinated...

An Alabama military base is taking increased actions to combat the ongoing prevalence of coronavirus infections, authorizing leaders to ask for proof of vaccination of service members not wearing a mask while on duty. It is the first military base in the continental United States to allow leaders to check the vaccination status of those in uniform. The new guidance at Fort Rucker comes as the new delta variant of the virus continues to drive infection rates and now accounts for a majority of cases in the United States. The base is among facilities, including Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Jackson in South Carolina, where less than half of the surrounding populations have been vaccinated.

Americans 12 and older can get a Covid-19 vaccine, but younger children are still waiting. With many schools across the United States are now just weeks from reopening for the fall semester, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna are still doing clinical trials to see how coronavirus vaccines work in children under 12, if they're safe and what the right dose should be. Meanwhile, all but four states are seeing an increasing trend in cases, with doctors describing patients who are younger and sicker than what they saw in the winter. The surge in cases has many parents of children under 12 asking when will their little and not-so-little ones can get the vaccine. The answer is that it's going to be months, if not longer. It's not as simple as administering available adult doses to younger people.

The COVID-19 curve in the U.S. is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings. Confirmed infections climbed to an average of about 23,600 a day on Monday, up from 11,300 on June 23, according to Johns Hopkins University data. And all but two states — Maine and South Dakota — reported that case numbers have gone up over the past two weeks.

Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, insisted booster shots are going to be necessary, despite caution from some experts. “At the end of the day it really matters that we get this pandemic under control. And we will not get it under control without boosting. That’s my strong opinion,” Sahin said.

Roughly one-fifth of Americans were initially hesitant about or squarely against getting the Covid-19 vaccine but have since gotten their shots, according to polling released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. … A quarter who'd gotten the vaccine after initial hesitation said they had been reassured to see other people getting vaccinated without ill effects. Many mentioned their families and friends getting the shot … Others who eventually decided to get the vaccine cited pressure from family and friends (8%) or a desire to visit loved ones safely (3%). … Reassurance and recommendations from doctors and health care providers also played a role (11%).

The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean. If the health department must issue any information about vaccines, staff are instructed to strip the agency logo off the documents. The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property, despite holding at least one such event this month.

Some vaccinated people are still getting infected, and a small subset of these individuals is still getting sick—and this is completely expected. We’re really, really bad at communicating that second point, which is all about breakthroughs, a concept that has, not entirely accurately, become synonymous with vaccine failure. … Bungling the messaging around our shots’ astounding success has made it hard to convey the truly minimal risk that the vaccinated face, and the enormous gamble taken by those who eschew the jabs.

Rodrigo will record videos encouraging vaccinations that will be shared with her social media channels, according to a White House official. “see you tomorrow at the white house!” the 18-year-old “Good 4 U” singer commented on the presidential Instagram account.