US Covid Case Count to Go Dark as Public Health Emergency Ends

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/us-covid-case-count-to-go-dark-as-public-health-emergency-ends-1.1916546

2h Aug
US Covid Case Count to Go Dark as Public Health Emergency Ends
Riley Griffin and Ilena Peng, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- The US government's count of new Covid-19 cases has been dropping for months. Soon, it will disappear entirely.

Thousands of Americans are still contracting the coronavirus each week. But when the public health emergency ends May 11, laboratories across the country will no longer be required to report Covid test results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That will eventually mean no more weekly infection, transmission and community-level numbers in CDC's Covid Data Tracker...​

 

[sharon sanders]

Please see:

Statement on the fifteenth meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (WHO, May 5, 2023)​

 

[sharon sanders]

COVID-19 is not over, just the emergency status is. It is endemic now. No longer an "emergency".

Please see our scientific library for the latest data on COVID-19: https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/welcome-to-the-scientific-library

The governments need everyone back at work and school. What disease?

Take care of you.

 

[Mary Wilson]

The U.S. COVID-19 public health emergency is ending. What does that mean?

MAY 4, 2023 AT 8:00 AM

By Erin Garcia de Jesús, McKenzie Prillaman and Helen Thompson

... Millions of people may lose access to free testing


COVID tests — at-home and lab versions — that were authorized by the FDA over the last three years will remain available. These tests were granted emergency use authorizations, or EUAs, which allow public access to tests that are not formally approved by the FDA. Instead of expiring with the public health emergency, the FDA can decide when it wants to end individual EUAs, and it can still issue EUAs for any new tests that might be developed.

What may change is who pays for tests and diagnostics. It all comes down to insurance.

... another big shift looms later this year. Throughout the pandemic, the U.S. government stockpiled vaccines and treatments to fight COVID-19 and provided them to the public for free. Congress has decided not to continue funding these efforts. Stockpiles for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments are expected to run out this summer or fall, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said in an interview with the University of California, San Francisco earlier this year.

On the vaccine front, the government previously bought shots at a discounted cost of around $21 per shot from pharmaceutical companies, according to data from KFF. When supplies run out, health care providers will have to buy them directly from companies. Pfizer and Moderna, which manufacture the widely used mRNA shots, both estimate that the commercial cost will range between $110 to $130 per shot.

​... On the treatment front, antivirals purchased by the government will remain free as long as government stockpiles last. After that, pharmacies will have to purchase them directly from companies. Medicaid will continue to cover treatments until September 2024, but after that costs may vary by state. Medicare Part D, the prescription medication arm of the insurance program for seniors, covers only drugs with full FDA approval, which could impact treatments available through an EUA.

Paxlovid, a popular antiviral medication that curbs COVID-19 symptoms and reduces the risk of long covid (SN: 3/31/23), was originally purchased by the government at price of $530 per dose. Pfizer has not disclosed how much it plans to charge on the commercial market, KFF Health News reports. The company has also applied to get a formal thumbs up from the FDA, and an advisory committee voted in March to recommend approval of Paxlovid. ...
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https://www.sciencenews.org/article...mergency-ending-tests-vaccines-drugs-research
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