Like every day, there is news about COVID-19. Some of it is encouraging. Much of it is grim.
But, as always, journalists are doing good work explaining what’s going on.
Let’s start with Bloomberg’s Drew Armstrong (with data analysis and visualization by David Ingold and Paul Murray), who has a deeply disturbing story: “Unvaccinated Covid Patients Push Hospital Systems Past the Brink.”
In a Twitter thread, Armstrong wrote about what he witnessed while reporting from Kentucky hospitals: “One man was in a high-flow oxygen mask. He was lying in bed, making tiny, fast bites at the air, gasping. He looked like he was suffocating, like a dying fish washed up on the beach.”
He also wrote, “I saw other patients on ventilators. They're pale and sedated. They look dead, until the ventilator pushes air into their lungs and their chest heaves upward. None of this looks natural, and it's very, very upsetting to watch.”
Armstrong goes on to explain that most of the patients are alone, able to only see loved ones through Zoom or FaceTime.
Armstrong goes on to tweet that there is “horror inside the hospital,” but for those who don’t see it, many like to believe that we’ve “moved on” from COVID-19. Armstrong tweeted, “Almost every doctor and nurse I spoke to said they did not think anyone outside the hospital knew what things were like. Most of the public has no idea. But they have seen horror after horror.”
Read Armstrong’s thread, but especially read his story.
Meanwhile, CNBC’s Spencer Kimball, Nate Rattner and Annika Kim Constantino report, “Public health officials have warned for weeks that the U.S. would face another Covid wave due to delta this winter, as families gather for the holidays and people spend more time inside to escape the cold.”
They added, “As hospitals from the Great Lakes to the Northeast battle delta, infectious disease experts are worried about another enemy that has gained a foothold in the U.S. The heavily mutated omicron variant is now present in more than two dozen states.”
Federal health officials said this week we could see another massive wave of infections as soon as next month. Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that there is “no doubt” community spread is underway.
In the CNN coronavirus newsletter, Ivana Kottasová writes, “The omicron coronavirus variant is spreading at a rate not seen with previous variants, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned, adding that the tendency to dismiss it as mild is concerning.”
The Washington Post’s Lena H. Sun, Joel Achenbach, Laurie McGinley and Tyler Pager wrote, “The worst-case scenario has spooked top health officials, who fear that a fresh wave, layered on top of delta and influenza cases in what one described as ‘a triple whammy,’ could overwhelm health systems and devastate communities, particularly those with low vaccination rates.”
Several universities (George Washington, Princeton, Cornell and NYU, to name a few) have canceled events and moved exams online. The NFL and NHL are dealing with breakouts on several teams. The Calgary Flames hockey team will have at least four games canceled because its coach and 16 players are in COVID-19 protocol. And NHL players might be reconsidering whether or not they should participate in the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The New York Times’ Michael Paulson reports that COVID-19 cases among cast and crew are canceling a slew of Broadway shows.
So is there any good news?
Well, Fauci does believe the current vaccines work against the omicron variant, and there’s no need for an omicron-specific booster. Writing for CNBC, Kimball writes, “Fauci said the primary two-dose vaccination series from Pfizer and BioNTech is significantly compromised by omicron, but still offers considerable protection against severe disease. Protection from the two-dose vaccine against infection dropped to 33% compared with 80% before the emergence of omicron. However, two doses are still 70% effective at preventing hospitalization in omicron patients in South Africa, Fauci said.”
Fauci repeated what he has been saying for a while now: “And so the message remains clear. If you are unvaccinated get vaccinated, and particularly in the arena of omicron if you are fully vaccinated, get your booster shot.”
And continue to stay informed from much of the excellent journalism out there, including the Covering COVID-19 daily newsletter from my Poynter colleague Al Tompkins.
A troubling experiment
