Daily Covid BriefingCovid News: Biden Calls Effort to Vaccinate Very Young U.S. Children a ‘Monumental Step Forward’

‘Finally, some peace of mind,’ Biden says addressing the start of Covid vaccinations for very young children.

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President Biden spoke about Covid-19 vaccines for children younger than 5 on Tuesday from the White House.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

President Biden on Tuesday marked what White House officials have cast as the unofficial beginning of the U.S. vaccination campaign for children younger than 5, visiting a site in Washington, D.C., to meet with families and children as some shots were administered.

“Finally, some peace of mind,” Mr. Biden said at the White House after the event in remarks celebrating the availability of shots, calling it a “monumental step forward” in the nation’s pandemic response.

Federal health officials, eager to showcase the progress the United States has made in fending off deadly cases of the coronavirus, have worked for weeks to prepare parents and doctors for immunizing the youngest children, a population of around 20 million that has waited 18 months after adults first became eligible for the shots.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late last week cleared the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech shots for young children following votes from independent expert committees.

Mr. Biden said that he met with around 17 families at the Washington vaccination site with children who had already received a shot or were about to. A federal website, vaccines.gov, had updated on Tuesday to show locations where vaccines could be found, he said.

Arsema Desta, a registered nurse in Washington helping with local pediatric vaccination efforts, appeared with the president at the White House and said that shots for young children were important “because it allows multigenerational households to ensure everyone in the household is vaccinated.”

The Biden administration has already made at least 10 million doses available to states and health providers and expects to lean heavily on pediatricians and primary care offices to administer them, as is typical in pediatric vaccination campaigns. Pharmacies and community health centers, among other providers, will also vaccinate the youngest children.

But as of a deadline last week, only 2.5 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine had been ordered, around half of what the federal government offered, as well as about 1.3 million Moderna doses, about a quarter of what was offered.

Dr. Deborah M. Greenhouse, a pediatrician in Columbia, S.C., said that as of Tuesday afternoon, her practice had still been waiting on about 1,000 doses to arrive. She said parents she had encountered so far fell into three categories: those knocking down the doors to get the vaccine; those interested but needing some consultation; and families completely resistant.

She said that lower uptake among 5- to 11-year-olds was a “real concern” she and colleagues had, but were hoping to overcome with younger children. Only around 37 percent of kids in the age group have received at least one dose.

Pediatricians are especially important for families in making the choice, she said.

“Once it’s rolling out and you have a lot of the early adopter groups, once their kids have gotten the vaccine and there’s more data and bigger numbers, that’s what’s going to attract” families waiting to decide, she said.

Speaking at the White House Tuesday, Mr. Biden again warned of a lack of funding for the federal pandemic response, something he suggested could hinder future attempts to quash possible surges. Federal health officials have pleaded for months with lawmakers to provide more money for vaccines and treatments. But negotiations have stalled, even turning publicly hostile at a Senate hearing last week.

Mr. Biden also appeared to take a swipe at Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Health providers in the state were allowed to belatedly order shots for young children last week after Florida became the only state to decline preordering, White House officials have said. State officials denied that they had reversed their position and said that they had maintained a policy to allow orders after F.D.A. authorization.

“Let’s be clear: Elected officials shouldn’t get in the way and make it more difficult for parents who want their children to be vaccinated and want to protect them and those around them,” Mr. Biden said. “This is no time for politics. It’s about parents being able to do everything they can to keep their children safe.”

Vaccines roll out slowly for U.S. children younger than 5.

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Brian Wentzel holding hands with his 2-year-old son, Bodhi, at Dayton Children’s Hospital in Ohio on Tuesday.Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

Health workers across the United States began to give Covid-19 vaccinations to children 6 months to 5 years old on Tuesday, another milestone in the coronavirus pandemic that came 18 long months after adults first began to receive injections against the virus.

But the response from parents was notably muted, with little indication of the excitement and long lines that greeted earlier vaccine rollouts.

An April poll showed that less than a fifth of parents of children under 5 were eager to get access to the shot right away. Early adopters in this age group appeared to be outliers.

At 9 a.m., Dayton Children’s Hospital in Ohio became one of the first sites to vaccinate the youngest children, with the three-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine meant for this age group. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also endorsed a second option for young children, a two-dose regimen from Moderna.

Brian Wentzel, 38, brought his 2-year-old son, Bodhi, at 9:15 a.m. The boy clutched a stuffed dog and bravely took the shot in his leg. His mother is a physician at the hospital.

“It was important to get him vaccinated,” Mr. Wentzel said. “It is extremely effective at preventing severe illness.”

At a White House news conference on Tuesday afternoon, President Biden called the expanded vaccines “a monumental step forward.

“The United States,” he continued, “is now the first country in the world to offer safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old.”

He encouraged all Americans to get vaccinated and said parents should speak to a family doctor if they had questions. In additional to doctors’ offices, hospitals and clinics, the pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart would soon offer vaccines to the youngest children, Mr. Biden said.

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Jen Wilkerson, 28, with her son, Jaxson, 4, at their home in Minneapolis on Tuesday.Credit...Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

The vaccines did not yet appear to be widely available. Some pediatricians’ offices reported that they had not yet received the shots or that they planned to deliver the vaccine mostly at regularly scheduled well visits.

Yet clamoring from families is limited. The reasons for parental vaccine hesitation are varied. Two years into the pandemic, many families have become resigned to living with the virus, and a majority of American children have already been infected, mostly experiencing mild symptoms.

Jill Cowan contributed to this report.

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Broadway will drop its mask mandate beginning July 1.

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Beginning July 1, Broadway theaters will drop the requirement for patrons to wear masks.Credit...John Taggart for The New York Times

Broadway theaters will be allowed to drop their mask mandates starting July 1, the Broadway League announced Tuesday.

The League described the new policy as “mask optional,” and said it would be re-evaluated monthly.

“Our theater owners have been watching the protocols, watching admissions to hospitals, watching as we have no issues across the country where tours are mostly not masked, and they decided it was time to try,” said Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League. “This is not an easy decision — there are more people that want masks off than on, but plenty still want them on — and we’re encouraging people that have any concerns to wear their masks.”

St. Martin said the theater owners would continue to meet weekly to assess the health situation, and are open to reimposing the mandate if necessary. “We’re going to see how it goes,” she said.

Broadway had maintained fairly restrictive audience policies since theaters reopened last summer. The theaters required patrons to show proof of vaccination until April 30, and have continued to require patrons to wear masks except while eating and drinking.

Broadway’s public health protocols have taken on an outsize role in the performing arts, as many other institutions have taken their cues from the big theaters. Broadway theaters imposed a vaccine mandate before New York City did the same for restaurants, gyms and other indoor performances, and then maintained their rules long after the city stopped requiring them.

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Regular reminders to wear masks had been part of the theatergoing experience this season.Credit...Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times

Mask wearing became part of the theatergoing experience this season: sign-wielding employees walked the aisles reminding patrons of the requirement, and reminders to wear masks were added to the usual preshow announcements about turning off mobile phones and banning photography. When theaters first reopened, some did not sell food and drink to avoid interfering with mask-wearing; the consumption of refreshments now provides a noticeable loophole for those who don’t like wearing masks.

Some other performing arts venues, including many Off Broadway theaters, continue to ask for proof of vaccination and to mandate masks, and public transit in New York continues to require masks indoors, although compliance is dropping. But many other corners of society, including domestic air travel, have dropped mask mandates and conditions in the city seem to be improving: Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that the city’s Covid-19 alert level had moved from high to medium.

There are currently 27 shows running in Broadway’s 41 theaters.

The four nonprofit organizations that operate six of the Broadway houses hung onto vaccine mandates longer than the commercial landlords who operate the majority of the theaters. But none of the nonprofits currently has a show running on Broadway, and none plans to resume producing on Broadway until after Labor Day.

Roundabout Theater Company, which is scheduled to begin performances of a Broadway revival of “1776” in September, plans to evaluate its protocols monthly, according to a spokeswoman, Jessica Johnson, who said it is too soon to determine the rules for this fall. The nonprofit is continuing to maintain a mask mandate for its current Off Broadway shows.

The other nonprofits operating on Broadway, which plan to start shows in the fall, said it was too soon to know what their safety protocols would be then.

Public reaction to the mask-optional policy was, predictably, polarized, with some cheering what they saw as an overdue step, and others ruing a retreat they viewed as reckless.

Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, a frequent Broadway theatergoer as a Tony voter and professor of theater studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said he would continue to wear a mask while seeing shows. “It’s important, when you have people packed that tightly together, to control the flow of airborne germs at a time when we don’t know what the long-term effect of Covid is going to be,” he said.

Antiviral drugs for Covid are inequitably prescribed, a C.D.C. study finds.

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Paxlovid is Pfizer’s anti-viral medication for the treatment of coronavirus disease.Credit...Brian Snyder/Reuters

Americans who live in the nation’s most socially and economically disadvantaged communities were half as likely as those in wealthier areas to be prescribed new oral anti-viral medications for Covid in recent months, even though a large number of sites that dispense the drugs are in those areas, a study found.

The new study, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, examined more than a million prescriptions that were dispensed for the new anti-viral drugs, Lagevrio and Paxlovid, between Dec. 23, 2021, and May 21, 2022. Researchers analyzed the prescriptions by ZIP code, classifying the geographic areas as zones of low, medium or high social vulnerability.

In areas of high social vulnerability, prescriptions were dispensed at half the rate as in ZIP codes classified as medium or low-social vulnerability, they found.

The disparity occurred despite the fact that about half the sites capable of dispensing the drugs were located in the disadvantaged areas, which are home to roughly half the nation’s residents, the study reported.

The reasons for the disparities were not clear, but patients who want to avail themselves of anti-viral drugs must first test positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and then be seen by a health care provider who can prescribe the medication; the dispensing sites do not have on-site providers who can prescribe the drugs.

Many residents in disadvantaged areas may have trouble seeing a doctor or physician assistant who can prescribe the medication, the study’s authors said. One solution might be to facilitate access to testing, clinical assessment and medication in a single visit, the authors suggested.

Cost may also be a barrier, the paper noted, as a federal program that reimbursed uninsured individuals for the costs of testing, seeing a health care provider and medication ended on March 22.

Another C.D.C. study issued on Tuesday highlighted the effectiveness of the medications. An analysis of data from a large health care system in California found that of more than 5,000 people prescribed Paxlovid for mild to moderate Covid, fewer than one percent required hospital or emergency room care. Only six hospitalizations and 39 emergency department visits related to Covid occurred within five to 15 days after use of the drug, the study found.

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Citing a disastrous pandemic response, an expert panel calls for an overhaul of the U.S. public health system.

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A Covid-19 memorial in Washington in September.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times

A bipartisan panel of health experts calls on Tuesday for an overhaul of the American public health system that would greatly expand the role of the federal government, giving Washington the authority to set minimum health standards and coordinate a patchwork of nearly 3,000 state, local and tribal agencies.

The recommendations flow from what the panel, the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a National Public Health System, described as the inadequacies and inequities of the United States’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than one million Americans.

But in a report released on Tuesday, the panel said it also wanted to address the failures of the nation’s public health agencies to protect Americans from other health risks, including drug overdoses, diabetes and maternal mortality.

In recommending the creation of a new “national public health system,” the bipartisan panel, financed by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group focused on health care issues, is dipping its toe in contentious political waters.

While other countries have centralized public health authorities, public health in the United States is largely managed at the state and local level. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal public health agency, does not have the authority to compel states to act — it cannot, for example, investigate outbreaks of infectious disease in a particular state unless it has an invitation from state officials to do so.

State health agencies and the C.D.C. have a long history of working collaboratively, but throughout the pandemic, elected state officials — particularly those in red states — have been reluctant to cede control. When the C.D.C. asked states to sign agreements to share vaccination data with the federal government, for example, a number of states balked.

In its report, the panel cited “archaic approaches to aggregating data” as one reason so many Americans have died. It called on Congress to give the Department of Health and Human Services authority to establish and enforce standards for data collection.

Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, a member of the panel, who served as C.D.C. director in President George W. Bush’s administration, said the pandemic had “taught us that we have to have a coordinated, integrated public health network that functions — and the only way that we can bring that together is by having a national approach.”

The panel’s report comes as Congress is considering legislation that takes a different approach to shoring up the nation’s public health infrastructure. The Senate health committee has passed a bipartisan measure that would require the C.D.C. director to be confirmed by the Senate, and that calls for additional steps to improve coordination among the nation’s public health agencies.

The commission’s recommendations are more sweeping. The panel, led by Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President Barack Obama, calls for the creation of a new position — Under Secretary for Public Health — within the Department of Health and Human Services, to oversee the national public health system.

The under secretary would coordinate the work of more than a dozen federal agencies that play a role in public health, and would have the power to set minimum health standards for the states.

“Our system of public health is a federalist system with states and localities having considerable autonomy — and appropriately so, as they adapt to the needs of their states and communities,” Dr. Hamburg said in an interview. “However, the public health protections that individuals receive shouldn’t be wholly dependent on where you live. There should be a core set of expectations.”

A Chinese Omicron study finds a low risk of severe illness, renewing debate over the ‘zero Covid’ policy.

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A coronavirus testing site in Beijing last week.Credit...Jade Gao/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A new Chinese study about the relatively low risks associated with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has reignited discussion about whether the country’s aggressive response to Covid-19 cases is necessary.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday published a study that found that 22 of more than 33,000 patients hospitalized after testing positive for Omicron developed severe illness. All of the patients who developed a more serious illness were over 60 years old and had underlying medical conditions, according to the study, which was conducted from March 22 to May 3 at four Shanghai hospitals.

In China, anyone who tests positive for the coronavirus is sent to a hospital or isolation facility.

Under the country’s “zero Covid” policy — which shut down Shanghai for almost two months — a single positive test result can set off a lockdown of an entire apartment complex, confining hundreds and even thousands of residents to their homes for weeks with very little notice. When someone tests positive for the coronavirus, residents within a certain proximity might be ordered to take tests for three straight days to be cleared as a low health risk.

The lockdowns and constant testing have brought the Chinese economy to a standstill while fueling resentment among parts of the population that say the measures are excessive.

Last week, a protest erupted in Kunshan, a city bordering Shanghai, over rules preventing commuters from heading to the financial center for work. It came after a demonstration last month in Beijing, the capital, where a group of Peking University students protested after they were ordered to isolate themselves while teachers and their families were not bound to similar restrictions.

One of the study’s 19 authors was Zhang Wenhong, an infectious-disease specialist and one of China’s leading voices on Covid-19 who has argued against excessive lockdowns. The study “provides evidence for refining Covid-19 public health strategies” to avoid overwhelming medical resources, the authors wrote, without making specific recommendations.

The findings were in line with other studies that have concluded that Omicron is overall less severe than the Delta variant, though it can be deadly for some people. Still, it generated heated debate on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform. In the three days since the study’s release, the hashtag about the report received more than 98 million views and 10,000 discussions on the platform.

Some people questioned the need for lockdowns to contain the virus after seeing the data. One person noted that there were no severe illnesses for low-risk people and that the portion of people who developed severe disease was less than one-tenth of one percent.

“However, we have paid such a huge price (materially and mentally),” this person wrote, adding that the zero-Covid policy seemed “ignorant.”

Defenders of China’s hard-line stance saw the study as a political issue. One Weibo post accused Dr. Zhang of publishing the paper to justify Shanghai’s initial approach to containing the virus with more targeted restrictions. That strategy was abandoned in favor of a full lockdown in April and May.

Claire Fu contributed research.

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Deaths in the U.S. stay near pandemic lows, despite another virus surge.

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A coronavirus testing site in Miami last week.Credit...Saul Martinez for The New York Times

For two years, the coronavirus killed Americans on a brutal, predictable schedule: A few weeks after infections climbed so did deaths, cutting an unforgiving path across the country.

But that pattern appears to have changed. Nearly three months since an ultra-contagious set of new Omicron variants launched a springtime resurgence of cases, people are dying from Covid at a rate close to the lowest of the pandemic.

The spread of the virus and the number of deaths in its wake, two measures that were once yoked together, have diverged more than ever before, epidemiologists said. Deaths have ticked up slowly in the northeastern United States, where the latest wave began, and are likely to do the same nationally as the surge pushes across the South and West. But the country remains better fortified against Covid deaths than earlier in the pandemic, scientists said.

Because so many Americans have now been vaccinated or infected or both, they said, the number of people whose immune systems are entirely unprepared for the virus has significantly dwindled.

“In previous waves, there were still substantial pockets of people who had not been vaccinated or exposed to the virus, and so were at the same risk of dying as people at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Dr. David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Those pockets don’t exist anymore.”

That turn in the pandemic has nevertheless left many Americans behind.

Older people make up a larger share of Covid deaths than they did last year. The virus continues to kill unvaccinated people at much higher rates than vaccinated people, despite many unvaccinated people having some protection from prior infections. And those with weakened immune systems also face greater risks.

Covid is still killing an average of 314 people daily, one-tenth the number who were dying every day in January 2021, but, even so, an awful toll. At that rate, the virus is killing more than twice as many Americans every day as suicide or car crashes are. And many of those who survive the virus are debilitated, some of them for long after their infections.

With the country’s resources for fighting the virus drying up and many Americans forgoing booster shots, the decoupling of cases and deaths may not last. Immunity will wane and a more evasive variant could cut into people’s residual protection against severe disease.

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