Based on the Centers for Disease Control’s COVID Data Tracker, here’s the FEHBlog weekly chart of new COVID cases in 2021, which uses Thursday as the first day of the week:

Encouraging, n’est-ce pas?

The CDC’s chart of new COVID hospitalizations points in the same hopeful direction.

Here’s the FEHBlog’s weekly chart of new COVID deaths which while a lagging indicator is now heading in the right direction too.

Here is the FEHBlog’s weekly chart of newly distributed and administered COVID vaccines, which includes boosters.

For the each of the past three days over 1 million COVID vaccines have been administered in our country. 67.7% of Americans over age 12 (the current minimum age to receive the vaccination) are fully vaccinated. 85% of the 65 and older U.S. population is fully vaccinated and 22% of that cadre has received the booster.

Here is a link to the CDC’s weekly interpretation of these COVID statistics which was released today. The CDC’s most recent Fluview report is that “Seasonal influenza activity in the United States remains low.”

In related Delta variant news, the Washington Post reports that the acting Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock today ratified the FDA vaccinations panel’s recommendation to award emergency use authorization to administering the Pfizer vaccine to children ages 5 to 11. The Post explains that

the process of getting vaccines cleared for younger school-age children has been fraught, with members of the FDA’s outside advisory committee expressing some angst and disagreements during a vociferous public debate this week. In the end, the panel voted 17 to 0, with one abstention, to recommend the vaccine, agreeing with the FDA that the shot’s known and potential benefits outweighed the known and potential risks — the criteria for an emergency authorization.

The discussion about the shot is expected to resume Tuesday when the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is scheduled to meet to recommend how to use the vaccine. After CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signs off, probably on the same day, providers, including pediatricians and pharmacists, will be able to begin administering the vaccine.

The Wall Street Journal adds that

Covid-19 was over five times more common among hospitalized people who were unvaccinated and had a previous infection, compared with those who were fully vaccinated and hadn’t had Covid-19 before, a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

The report, released Friday and written by scientists from the federal agency as well as hospitals across the U.S., adds to the body of research suggesting that vaccines provide stronger protection against the coronavirus than prior-infection immunity.

In No Surprises Act news, the Texas Medical Association has filed a lawsuit against the federal agencies implementing this law, including OPM, alleging that the recently issued interim final rule on the independent dispute resolution process conflicts with Congressional intent by giving health plans an unfair advantage in NSA arbitrations. The FEHBlog views this as an exercise in futility, but we shall see if the Court share the FEHBlog’s viewpoint.

Also from the litigation front, Govexec reports that

Eleven states with Republican governors are challenging the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors between two lawsuits filed on Thursday and Friday. 

The state of Florida filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in the Tampa Division seeking an injunction on the mandate that has a December 8 deadline for millions of employees of federal contractors to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Then on Friday, Missouri, Nebraska, Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming filed a similar lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri also seeking an injunction. 

The FEHBlog will be keeping an eye on these cases too.