Cases and Hospitalizations Still Elevated
United States Averaging 3,000+ Deaths Daily
Multiple New Variants Threaten to Undermine Progress Against Virus
The pandemic remains a crisis of the highest urgency; despite that new cases and hospitalizations have declined slightly over the last few days, they both still number in the hundreds of thousands, as the United States’ death toll approaches a half a million fatalities. Meanwhile, a collection of ominous, highly contagious variants are threatening to undo the nation’s progress — some appearing more deadly, and others appearing resistant to antibody treatments.
Congress must pass the American Rescue Plan to mitigate this crisis. Not only does the package offer robust support to working families that have been forced to suffer the pandemic’s economic fallout; it also provides a strategic, multipronged approach to containing the virus through investment in vaccines, testing, treatments, and even sequencing to identify and respond to dangerous variants. The package would scale up the federal response to the level experts always said was necessary — and is an essential step in prioritizing the health and wellness of the American people.
Cases and Hospitalizations Continue to Outpace the Worst Peaks of the Spring and Summer Surges as the Death Toll Rises
- According To The New York Times, The United States Is Still Averaging More Than 170,000 New Infections Per Day. “At least 1,796 new coronavirus deaths and 155,677 new cases were reported in the United States on Jan. 25. Over the past week, there has been an average of 172,429 cases per day… As of Tuesday morning, more than 25,333,200 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus according to a New York Times database.” [New York Times, Accessed 1/26/21]
- There Are Still More Than 100,000 People In The United States Hospitalized With COVID-19, While More Than 20,000 Are In Intensive Care Units. “A total of 109,936 people across the country were hospitalized due to the disease as of Monday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. The number of patients requiring treatment in intensive care units also fell slightly to 20,875.” [Wall Street Journal, 1/26/21]
- Roughly One In Every 780 US Residents Has Died From The Coronavirus. “Cumulatively, nearly 419,000 people have died from the novel coronavirus, or one in every 780 U.S. residents.” [Reuters, 1/25/21]
- The United States Is Averaging More Than 3,000 Coronavirus Fatalities Daily. “The U.S. is recording just under 3,100 deaths a day on average, down from more than 3,350 less than two weeks ago.” [Associated Press, 1/26/21]
Highly Contagious, Possibly More Deadly Variants Are Causing Concern Among Scientists; Highlight Need to Control Outbreak
- The First Case Of A Highly Transmissible Brazilian Variant Of The Virus Has Been Identified In The United States. “Minnesota officials announced Monday they have identified a person infected with a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus that has been spreading at alarming rates in recent weeks in Brazil. This is the first report in the United States of the P.1 variant, which has been of particular concern to scientists as they have observed the disastrous surge in infections in the Brazilian city of Manaus.” [Washington Post, 1/25/21]
- The Brazilian Variant Is “Causing The Most Concern” Among Experts, Raising Fears That The Virus Could Evade The Immune System. “One research study published in the journal Science estimated that 76 percent of the Manaus population already had been infected by the coronavirus. That should have put Manaus close to herd immunity. The new surge has raised fears that the P.1 variant has mutations that allow it to evade the human immune system… Although scientists know quite a bit about the U.K. variant, the Brazil variant ‘is probably the one causing the most concern among people watching this,’ William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said Monday. ‘It is fair to say that P.1 is the object of very, very serious attention and concern among epidemiologists. We don’t know why it has been so successful in Manaus.’” [Washington Post, 1/25/21]
- Dr. Anthony Fauci: “I’m Pretty Convinced That There Is A Degree Of Increase In Seriousness Of The Actual Infection” From The United Kingdom Virus Variant. “Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Monday that the Covid-19 variant ravaging the United Kingdom — which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has predicted will become dominant in the United States within roughly two months — is likely more deadly than the current common strain of the coronavirus…. ‘The data has not come out officially, but taking a look at the preliminary data that the U.K. scientists have analyzed, I’m pretty convinced that there is a degree of increase in seriousness of the actual infection, which we really have to keep an eye on,’ [Fauci] said.” [Politico, 1/25/21]
- A South African Variant Of The Virus Has Demonstrated Resistance To Monoclonal Antibodies, Which Have Been Used As A Therapy. “Despite the latest analysis of the U.K. variant, Fauci said Monday that U.S. officials were ‘more concerned’ about a separate coronavirus strain in South Africa because of its resistance to antibodies as a form of treatment. ‘When you do studies in the test tube, in-vitro studies, it shows that the ability of monoclonal antibodies that have been used for therapy … [are] really impaired in the presence of these particular variants,’ Fauci said.” [Politico, 1/25/21]
The Economic Impact of the Pandemic Continues to Wreak Havoc on American Families
- The Poverty Rate Increased By 2.4 Percent In The Second Half Of 2020, Marking The Sharpest Rise In Poverty In The United States Since The 1960s. “The end of 2020 brought the sharpest rise in the U.S. poverty rate since the 1960s, according to a study released Monday. Economists Bruce Meyer, from the University of Chicago, and James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame found that the poverty rate increased by 2.4 percentage points during the latter half of 2020 as the U.S. continued to suffer the economic impacts from Covid-19. That percentage-point rise is nearly double the largest annual increase in poverty since the 1960s. ” [Bloomberg, 1/25/21]
- The Poverty Rate Among Black Americans Jumped By 5.4 Percent In The Same Period. “Moreover, the poverty rate for Black Americans is estimated to have jumped by 5.4 percentage points, or by 2.4 million individuals.” [Bloomberg, 1/25/21]
- 900,000 Workers Filed For State Unemployment Benefits In The Last Week Of The Trump Presidency, Compared To 282,000 This Time Last Year. “The Labor Department said Thursday that 961,000 workers filed initial claims for state unemployment benefits last week. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the total was 900,000. The figures were down from the previous week but remain extraordinarily high by historical standards and have recently reached levels not seen since midsummer. In the comparable week a year ago, before the pandemic, there were 282,000 initial claims.” [New York Times, 1/21/21]
The United States Is Still Facing Vaccine Obstacles Left by the Trump Administration
- Across The United States, Communities Of Color Hardest Hit By The Pandemic Are Being Vaccinated At A Slower Rate Than Their Wealthier, Whiter Counterparts. “In cities across the U.S., the neighborhoods hardest-hit by the coronavirus are being vaccinated at a slower rate than their wealthier, whiter counterparts. Preventing socioeconomic disparities in the vaccination process was always going to be an uphill battle, but policy changes in response to the sluggish rollout have generally prioritized speed over equity. Early analyses and news reports show that in many cities and states, people of color — particularly Black Americans — are falling behind white Americans in the vaccination effort.” [Axios, 1/26/21]”
- Following Trump Administration’s Exclusive Partnership With CVS And Walgreens, Few Long-Term Care Facility Residents Have Received Second Shot. “A little more than a month into the COVID-19 vaccination effort in long-term care facilities, only 8% of residents and staff have received the second dose of the vaccine, according to newly released federal data… [Dr. Mike Wasserman, a geriatrician and past president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine] attributes that to the Trump administration’s exclusive partnership with CVS and Walgreens. Instead, the government should have used the network of long-term care pharmacies across the country that already had relationships with nursing homes and assisted-living facilities and had existing systems for medicine distribution in place, he said.” [Modern Healthcare, 1/25/21]