Overnight Health Care: COVID-19 cases rising in every state | Wisconsin health official warns state nearing ‘tipping point’ | Fauci predicts data from Moderna vaccine within a week
Welcome to Wednesday’s Overnight Health Care. As COVID-19 rages on across the U.S., the country is seeing record-high cases and hospitalizations and a Wisconsin official says they are near a “tipping point.” On a possible brighter side, Anthony Fauci said he thinks Moderna will announce initial results from its COVID-19 vaccine trial in the next week.
We’ll start with numbers:
COVID-19 cases rising in every state
Every state is now seeing increases in COVID-19 cases, and many are also seeing spikes in hospitalizations, a marker that the third wave of the pandemic has arrived.
The U.S. reported 136,000 new cases of coronavirus Tuesday, the largest single-day increase on record, according to a tracker by Johns Hopkins University.
Nearly 62,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide as of Tuesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project, also a record high and a sobering indicator that increases in deaths are likely soon to come.
Experts had long warned of increases in cases and deaths in the fall and winter, as the cold weather forces people indoors, where the virus spreads more easily. Experts also worry that pandemic fatigue has set in, leading people to let their guard down about wearing masks and social distancing.
Every state has seen increases in cases over the past seven days, according to the COVID Tracking Project, but states in the Midwest and Great Plains continue to have the highest numbers of cases per 100,000 people.
North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Nebraska have the worst outbreaks in the country, with more than 100 cases per 100,000 people, according to New York Times data.
Those states and dozens more have seen double-digit percentage increases in the past seven days.
Wisconsin health official warns state nearing ‘tipping point’ on COVID hospitalizations
Strain is increasing on the nation’s hospitals. The latest warning comes in Wisconsin.
A top health department official there says the state is nearing a point at which some patients who need lifesaving care will be unable to receive it due to overcrowding in hospitals resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said during a discussion hosted by Wisconsin Health News that the state was nearing a “tipping point” in terms of the number of hospitalizations caused by the virus that could result in facilities being overwhelmed.
“In terms of the number of cases we’re finding, this is as bad as that early, severe wave in New York City,” Westergaard said.
“We’re very close to a tipping point, and I think right now all the hospitals are strained, and it’s causing a lot of stress on health care workers and leaders, but the case fatality rate has remained kind of low,” he continued.
Fauci predicts data from Moderna COVID-19 vaccine within a week
Anthony Fauci expressed confidence Wednesday that positive data from Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine will be announced in the next few days.
According to the Financial Times, which hosted the top infectious disease expert at a conference, Moderna will begin assessing data from its phase three vaccine trials “within a week.”
“We were told that literally in the next few days to a week they’ll be doing the same thing of looking at the data as the Pfizer people did a week ago,” Fauci said.
Tea leaves: Moderna on Wednesday said it had submitted trial data to the independent board monitoring its trial, a sign that results could be announced shortly.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 means Moderna has been able to collect data quickly. The company said it expects this first interim analysis to include “substantially more than 53 cases,” which was the targeted trigger point for the analysis.
Pfizer CEO sold $5.6M in stock on day of vaccine news
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold $5.6 million worth of his company’s stock Monday in a preplanned sale on the same day it released promising results from a COVID-19 vaccine trial.
The sale was part of a plan authorized by Bourla in August to sell the shares once they hit a predetermined price.
It is standard for executives to sell their stock at predetermined prices to diversify their portfolios.
“The sale of these shares is part of Dr. Bourla’s personal financial planning and a pre-established (10b5-1) plan, which allows, under SEC rules, major shareholders and insiders of exchange-listed corporations to trade a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time,” a Pfizer spokesperson said in a statement.
Pfizer’s shares hit $41.94 a piece Monday after the company announced its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90 percent effective at protecting people from the virus.
Fauci reacts to Bannon: ‘That’s not the kind of thing you think about’ at medical school
It’s not every day you have to respond to someone calling for your beheading, but Dr. Anthony Fauci found himself in that situation in an Australian TV interview.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon caused outrage last week when he said that he wanted to put Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray’s “heads on pikes.”
Fauci was asked on the Australian news program “The 7:30 Report” what it was like “managing a pandemic and dealing with Donald Trump at the same time.”
“Well it’s obviously been very stressful,” Fauci responded in an interview published Wednesday. “I mean to deny that would be to deny reality, when you have public figures like Bannon calling for your beheading, that’s really kind of unusual I think. That’s not the kind of thing you think about when you’re going through medical school to become a physician, but I’ve gotten through it by really focusing like a laser beam on exactly what my goal is.”
Biden seeks to use the bully pulpit he has on COVID-19
President-elect Joe Biden is wasting no time in using his bully pulpit to push public health measures, such as mask wearing and physical distancing, that public health experts say will work best to combat the rapid spread of COVID-19.
Biden has promised a much more forceful federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic than President Trump and has announced his own COVID-19 advisory board of health experts in the days since he was projected to win the 2020 election.
As president, Biden said he will rapidly scale up the nation’s testing capacity, invest in contact tracing and use the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of protective equipment for front-line workers.
Biden has also promised to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide specific guidance for communities on how they should navigate COVID-19 restrictions, relative to the level of risk and degree of viral spread in a community.
As president-elect, Biden’s power is limited, but it is also not insignificant.
In recent his speeches, Biden has called for unity but has also offered a realistic view of the future of the pandemic.
“We are still facing a dark winter,” he said Monday, adding that “there’s a need for bold action to fight this pandemic.”
For his rhetoric to change behavior, Biden will need to win over GOP governors who support Trump and a divided public that is weary of COVID-19 restrictions.
Virtual Event Announcement: Wednesday 11/18
The Future of Diabetes Care
1 in 10 Americans live with diabetes. Join The Hill Virtually Live for two events on Wednesday, November 18 to explore the future of diabetes care. At noon eastern, Diabetes Caucus Co-Chairs Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) join us to discuss the future of healthcare reform for patients with diabetes. How can we align incentives and restructure our nation’s healthcare system so that it works for everyone, including those with chronic conditions?
And at 2:00 PM ET, we’ll explore the innovative digital technologies that are revolutionizing diabetes management and monitoring. What barriers stand in the way of access to technological advances in diabetes care and how can policymakers reform systems to create more equitable access to medical technologies? Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D. (R-Texas), Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) and a stand-out line of experts sit down with The Hill’s Steve Clemons.
What we’re reading
The surging coronavirus finds a federal leadership vacuum (New York Times)
Novavax posts coronavirus vaccine contract that government didn’t disclose (NPR)
Fever, symptom screening misses many coronavirus cases (Associated Press)
State by state
Utah National Guard increasing its presence in the ongoing COVID-19 battle (Deseret News)
Texas becomes 1st state to surpass 1 million COVID-19 cases (Associated Press)
Wastewater tests send another troubling signal as Mass. coronavirus cases spike (Boston Globe)
The Hill op-eds
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