More than 1 million lives have been lost in the United States from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The grave milestone was announced by the agency at a time when cases are rising once again amid a new wave of infections.
“The toll of this disease, the continued loss of life around the world, and the impact on our nation has been heartbreaking,” the CDC noted May 13. “Beyond causing sickness and death, the pandemic has triggered education disruptions, job loss, separation from friends and family, food insecurity, financial burden and an unprecedented mental health crisis.”
As of May 11, the seven-day moving average of daily new cases (84,778) increased 30.7% from the previous week. A total of 82,087,117 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the U.S. as of May 11, 2022.
The rise in cases comes as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded eligibility for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine under emergency use authorization for children 5 through 11 years of age. The U.S. COVID-19 vaccination rate has hovered around 66% in the past few months, with 78% of the population being at least partially vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.
Another emerging issue is with the use of Paxlovid, an oral antiviral therapy by Pfizer that was approved under emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of COVID-19. According to Michael Mina, MD, PhD, formerly an epidemiologist at Harvard and now chief science officer of eMed, some Paxlovid users are experiencing a “rebound” of the virus days after they stop taking the treatment.
“But then what we're seeing is after people come off the treatment – after their 5 day course is over – they might become negative on tests, but clearly the virus hasn't completely diminished,” Mina said in a video published on MedPage. “And after a couple of days, they rebound. They get detectable virus on both PCR and oftentimes antigen tests. And many people are actually now getting symptomatic with disease that looks a lot like an initial COVID infection.”
Paxlovid has proven to lower the risk of severe COVID-19 by 89%, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. [1]
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Reference:
[1] Jennifer Hammond, Ph.D., Heidi Leister-Tebbe, B.S.N., Annie Gardner, M.P.H., M.S.P.T., et al. “Oral Nirmatrelvir for High-Risk, Nonhospitalized Adults with Covid-19.” New England Journal of Medicine. DOI: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2118542
Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."