October 4, 2021

New Zealand abandons its zero-COVID elimination strategy under pressure from Delta, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern conceding the virus cannot be stamped out. Reuters and DW report the shift after months in which the country’s hard lockdowns had been held up abroad as a model, a reversal that leaves elimination looking less like a durable plan than a holding action.

Data arrives that complicates the transmission message. A study from UC Davis finds no significant difference in viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who test positive for Delta, and no difference between those with and without symptoms. A Lancet cohort study of the Pfizer shot in a large U.S. health system reports protection waning over six months. Both sit awkwardly next to earlier assurances that vaccination sharply curbs spread.

Fauci tells CBS it is “too soon to tell” whether Americans should gather for Christmas, extending the pattern of open-ended caution with no clear endpoint. The Atlantic, meanwhile, asks why Americans are still wearing cloth masks, an implicit admission that much of the past year’s masking offered little real protection.

Smokers were never really protected from COVID, despite what early studies claimed

How the ‘smoker’s paradox’ went up in a puff of smoke.

The Conversation

Testing high-touch surfaces in grocery stores for COVID-19

The risk of COVID-19 exposure from high-touch surfaces within grocery stores is low if physical distancing guidelines and recommended cleaning protocols are followed.

The Conversation

Fauci says it's "too soon to tell" whether Americans should avoid gathering for Christmas

"We've just got to concentrating on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months," he said.

CBS News

Coronavirus: New Zealand abandons 'zero-COVID' strategy – DW – 10/04/2021

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said her aim was never to record zero cases but to stamp out the virus effectively. Australia's delta outbreak appears to be leveling out. Follow DW for all the latest on COVID.

COVID-19 vaccination gives hope to eradicate polio - Nature Medicine

Nature

Longitudinal urinary biomarkers of immunological activation in covid-19 patients without clinically apparent kidney disease versus acute and chronic failure - Scientific Reports

Nature

NCI study highlights pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Latino adults

Investigators analyzed national surveillance data to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on excess deaths by racial and ethnic group.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) (.gov)

Losing Your Hair Can Be Another Consequence of the Pandemic (Published 2020)

The New York Times

Extra Shots from J. & J. and Pfizer Give Immune Boost, Companies Report (Published 2021)

The New York Times

New York Hospitals Face Possible Mass Firings as Workers Spurn Vaccines (Published 2021)

The New York Times

New Zealand drops COVID-19 elimination strategy under pressure from Delta

Reuters

The Myth That Democracies Bungled the Pandemic

The argument that authoritarian governments outperform democracies in a crisis has found new life during the coronavirus pandemic. The data tell a different story.

The Atlantic

Persistent depressive symptoms during COVID-19: a national, population-representative, longitudinal study of U.S. adults

The Lancet

Effectiveness of mRNA BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine up to 6 months in a large integrated health system in the USA: a retrospective cohort study

The Lancet

Viral Loads Similar Between Vaccinated and Unvaccinated People

A new study from the University of California, Davis, Genome Center, UC San Francisco and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub shows no significant difference in viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who tested positive for the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. It also found no significant difference between infected people with or without symptoms.

UC Davis

People struggling with long COVID are more common than we think, Oxford study confirms

The World Economic Forum

Fossil fuel demand shakes off pandemic in blow to climate fight

Reuters

5 ways the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the role of leaders

The World Economic Forum

Study confirms pandemic hit Black Americans, Native Americans and Latinos harder than Whites | CNN