Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trend In Covid Deaths Shifts To Vaccinated As Numbers Grow, Immunity Wanes
For the first time, a majority of Americans dying from the coronavirus received at least the primary series of the vaccine. Fifty-eight percent of coronavirus deaths in August were people who were vaccinated or boosted, according to an analysis conducted for The Health 202 by Cynthia Cox, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Beard, 11/23)
The paper described a "troubling trend" as the share of deaths of people who were vaccinated has been "steadily rising" over the past year. "In September 2021, vaccinated people made up just 23 percent of coronavirus fatalities. In January and February this year, it was up to 42 percent," the Washington Post's Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating wrote. (Pandolfo, 11/23)
On the effectiveness of covid vaccines —
Patients with nasopharyngeal cancer are often treated with drugs that activate their immune system against the tumor. Scientists feared that vaccination against COVID-19 could reduce the success of cancer treatment or cause severe side effects—until now. A recent study now gives the all-clear in this regard. According to the study, the cancer drugs actually worked better after vaccination with the Chinese vaccine SinoVac than in unvaccinated patients. (11/25)
A new study out of Denmark suggests COVID-19 vaccines offer good protection against reinfection in people who had already acquired the virus, sometimes up to 9 months. The study, which looked at protection offered during the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron waves is published in PLOS Medicine. The study population included more than 700,000 people. (Soucheray, 11/23)
A US study of the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of the new bivalent mRNA COVID-19 boosters estimates that they confer 28% to 56% more protection against symptomatic infections than two to four doses of the original mRNA vaccines. (Van Beusekom, 11/23)
In vaccine updates from California and Texas —
The California 4th District Court of Appeal ruled against the San Diego Unified School District’s COVID-19 student vaccine requirement this week. On Tuesday, the appellate court agreed with a lower court's ruling from last year that the school district does not have the authority to establish its own mandate. (Musto, 11/25)
The Texas Department of State Health Services will no longer provide updates on the number of COVID-19 vaccinations being administered statewide as it transitions to reporting coronavirus data on a weekly basis. (MacDonald, 11/23)
