U.S. tops highest seven-day death average since last year

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday invoked the biblical call to “love your neighbor” as school systems around the state struggled with strong reactions to his ban on local mask mandates, but the Republican also fanned the flames of partisan division in the face of court challenges and protests.

School districts resisting his ban “aren’t recognizing the rights of parents today,” Youngkin told conservative radio host John Fredericks. “And oh, by the way, they haven’t been recognizing the rights of parents all along. So I’m not surprised at all to hear these reactions from school boards that have consistently prioritized bureaucrats and politicians over the rights of parents.”

His comments dismissed the concerns of some of the biggest school systems in the state, a group of which have challenged Youngkin’s ban before the Supreme Court of Virginia. Those localities — including the counties of Fairfax and Prince William and the city of Richmond — argue that a state law requiring them to follow federal guidelines to fight the coronavirus makes it necessary to require face coverings in crowded schools.

Somehow, this keeps happening.

For months, we’ve written in this space about how the Republicans’ pushback against coronavirus vaccine mandates could foment — and apparently has been fomenting — opposition to mandates of other vaccines, including for schoolchildren. It’s inherent in their talking points: If vaccines should be a matter of “choice,” why not those more long-standing vaccines, too? High-profile Republicans haven’t generally addressed where they draw the line and why.

Early efforts to wade into allowing more choice on other vaccines had been quickly pulled back. In Tennessee, the state momentarily prevented its health department from communicating with children about any vaccines. In Florida, a prominent state senator suggested that his state might “review” those other vaccine requirements, before walking it back.

But GOP lawmakers in other states are increasingly moving in this direction.

Federal health officials reported Tuesday that the omicron variant caused less severe illness in hospitalized patients than earlier virus lineages, even though its explosive transmissibility has caused far more infections and led to more than 2,200 deaths a day on average, one of the highest tolls since early last year.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that people hospitalized with the omicron variant had shorter stays and less frequent admission to intensive care compared with those hospitalized with other coronavirus variants.

Despite record infections and hospitalizations caused by omicron, the percentage of hospitalized patients with severe illness are lower compared with those in earlier pandemic waves. That lower disease severity is partly the result of immune protection from higher vaccination coverage among those 5 and older, booster use and prior infection, as well as the potential lower virulence of the virus itself, according to the report. Other studies have suggested the variant is less able to penetrate deep in the lungs.

Sen. Mark R. Warner has tested positive for the coronavirus, the Virginia Democrat’s office said in a statement Tuesday.

Warner “is glad that he has been vaccinated and boosted, and at this time his symptoms are extremely mild,” his office said.

The senator’s case was a breakthrough infection, and he will work from home “for the duration of his isolation period,” according to his office.

A New York appeals court judge reimposed New York’s statewide mask mandate on Tuesday, reversing a lower court judge’s Monday ruling that stated the order was unconstitutional.

Judge Robert Miller permitted the state’s request for a stay of a Long Island judge’s ruling as the governor’s office seeks an appeal, Associated Press reported.

Nassau County Justice Thomas Rademacher ruled on Monday that the state’s mask order for public spaces had good intentions but was in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, making it null and void and prompting Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to say that she would pursue all options available to reverse the decision.

Hochul praised Tuesday’s ruling, stating that measures such as masking help prevent the spread of the virus.

“I commend the Attorney General for her defense of the health and safety of New Yorkers, and applaud the Appellate Division, Second Department for siding with common sense and granting an interim stay to keep the state’s important masking regulations in place,” she said. “We will not stop fighting to protect New Yorkers, and we are confident we will continue to prevail.”

The mask mandate was implemented last month by New York Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett at the behest of Hochul as the omicron variant triggered a rise in cases.

Senior administration officials, public health experts and Democrats say that the omicron wave has illustrated gaps in the U.S. global coronavirus strategy, warning that low-income nations are particularly vulnerable to the virus and that the risk of another variant will remain elevated as long as billions of people are unvaccinated.

“The assignment is incomplete,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who is leading a group of Democrats calling for $17 billion in additional funding for global vaccination delivery and infrastructure to immunize people in the developing world. “We need to make this investment going forward, and we need to do it ASAP.”

Some lawmakers and officials also say they remain unhappy with President Biden’s decision to split authority over the global coronavirus strategy between White House covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, arguing the structure complicates decisions and forces the two men to navigate between competing crises. Zients’s team has recently focused on the surging U.S. outbreak, and Sullivan’s national security team is addressing threats such as Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine.

Angie Wheeler had bonded with her patient, and now his body was failing. The nurse tried not to let him see the concern in her eyes.

It was only the day before that he had told her about his job, his wife and children. Now, the intensive care unit’s head doctor told Wheeler, he needed to be placed on a ventilator. She donned her protective gear and headed in.

Nearly two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Wheeler, 65, knew what to say:

“You’re going to go to sleep, okay? You won’t remember any of this.”

“I’m trusting you to take care of me,” he told her.

The words hurt. Why, Wheeler couldn’t help but think, hadn’t he just gotten vaccinated?

Like hospitals across the country, Luminis Health Doctors Community Hospital is facing a two-pronged crisis in this surge, with thin staffing and more covid-19 patients than ever before. Employees who remain have no choice but to shoulder bigger burdens. Among the heaviest, they say, is the emotional weight of so much preventable death.

Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, have begun testing a vaccine tailored to battle the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the companies announced Tuesday.

The highly anticipated trial will test several booster scenarios in 1,420 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55 to determine the best vaccination strategy moving forward.

The questions of when and whether another booster will be needed after a third shot, and what kind, remain a scientific uncertainty and source of anxiety for people hoping for the highest levels of protection. Data has clearly shown that a third shot provides a strong shield against severe illness and hospitalization, but it remains unclear how long that will hold up.

“We may need to boost again. That’s entirely conceivable,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “Before we make that decision about yet again another boost, we want to determine clearly what the durability of protection is of that regular boost.”

The Pfizer and BioNTech trial will consist of three groups of people, a reflection of highly varied levels of immunity among the population — differences that did not exist at the dawn of the pandemic. The three groups will have different vaccination histories, from completely unvaccinated to fully boosted with a third shot, and will receive different combinations of shots.