COVID-19 Timeline: July 2021
June 2, 2022
At Bioethics.com we have kept up with the spread of COVID-19 and the related bioethical questions that this pandemic brings. The posts that follow highlights news from July 2021 and were originally posted at Bioethics.com. These posts focus on the bioethical issues that medical professionals, bioethicists, public health officials, and scientists grappled with as SARS-CoV-2 swept the globe.
July 1: “Delta Variant’s Spread Hobbles Global Effort to Lift Covid-19 Restrictions” by Paul Hannon, Gabriele Steinhauser and Sha Hua, The Wall Street Journal
The fast spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in much of the world is thwarting plans in many countries to lift lockdowns and reopen economies, a major setback to efforts to contain the global Covid-19 pandemic.
July 2: “Mix-and-Match COVID Vaccines: The Case Is Growing, But Questions Remain” by Dyani Lewis, Nature
Mixing COVID-19 vaccines is emerging as a good way to get people the protection they need when faced with safety concerns and unpredictable supplies.
July 2: “Frontline Health Care Workers Aren’t Feeling the ‘Summer of Joy’” by Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times
America’s health care workers are in crisis, even in places that have had sharp declines in coronavirus infections and deaths. Battered and burned out, they feel unappreciated by a nation that lionized them as Covid heroes but often scoffed at mask mandates and refused to follow social distancing guidelines. Many of those same Americans are now ignoring their pleas to get vaccinated.
July 2: “Covid-19 Vaccine Passport System Gets First Test in Europe” by Benjamin Katz and Daniel Michaels, The Wall Street Journal
The European Union started rolling out a first-of-a-kind digital health certificate that permits people who have been vaccinated to travel freely within the bloc without the need to quarantine or test negative for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination.
July 5: “Indonesia Seeks More Oxygen for COVID-19 Sick Amid Shortage” by Edna Tarigan and Slamet Riyadi, Associated Press
Parts of Indonesia lack oxygen supplies as the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients who need it increases, the nation’s pandemic response leader said Monday [July 5], after dozens of sick people died at a public hospital that ran out of its central supply.
July 5: “Deaths Drop, but COVID-19 Cases Rise 10% Over Last Week” by Ralph Ellis, Medscape
After a steady period of decline, the daily average of new COVID-19 cases has started ticking upward, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, said Thursday at a White House news briefing.
July 6: “Israel Data ‘Preliminary Signal’ Delta Variant Can Bypass Vaccine: Expert” Medical Xpress
Rising coronavirus cases in Israel, where most residents are inoculated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, offer “a preliminary signal” the vaccine may be less effective in preventing mild illness from the Delta variant, a top expert said Monday.
July 7: “Experts Advise on Rare Severe Allergic Reactions to COVID Vaccines” Reuters Staff, posted at Medscape
Anaphylactic reactions to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines may occur but are rare, and the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks, according to an expert panel that has developed recommendations on diagnosis and management.
July 7: “Covid-19 Vaccine-Related Blood Clots Linked to Amino Acids in New Study” by Jenny Strasburg, The Wall Street Journal
Canadian researchers say they have pinpointed a handful of amino acids targeted by key antibodies in the blood of some people who received AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, offering fresh clues to what causes rare blood clots associated with the shot.
July 8: “WHO Recommends Roche, Sanofi Drugs for COVID-19 to Cut Death Risk” by John Miller, Reuters, posted at Medscape
The World Health Organization on Tuesday recommended using arthritis drugs Actemra from Roche and Kevzara from Sanofi with corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients after data from some 11,000 patients showed they cut the risk of death.
July 9: “Gene Hunters Turn Up New Clues to Help Explain Why Covid-19 Hits Some People So Hard” by Megan Molteni, STAT News
Over the last 15 months, more than 3,300 researchers from 25 countries have poured data from millions of people, including more than 125,000 Covid-19 patients, into the initiative, making it one of the largest gene-hunting missions in history.
July 12: “CDC and Pfizer at Odds Over Need for COVID-19 Booster Shots” by Damian McNamara, Medscape
Shortly after Pfizer announced its intention to seek FDA authorization for a third COVID-19 vaccine shot on Thursday, the CDC, FDA, and NIH countered with a joint statement the same day saying, essentially, it’s still too soon.
July 12: “New CDC School Guidance Calls for In-Person Classes, with Caveats” by Damian McNamara, Medscape
School may be out for summer, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still in session. The agency released updated guidance July 9 that promotes in-person learning when K-12 students return in the fall, and relaxed mask recommendations for those fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
July 12: “In Children, Risk of Covid-19 Death or Serious Illness Remains Extremely Low, New Studies Find” by Denise Roland, The Wall Street Journal
Children are at extremely slim risk of dying from Covid-19, according to some of the most comprehensive studies to date, which indicate the threat might be even lower than previously thought.
July 12: “Clinical Trial Participants Stuck in Coronavirus Vaccine Limbo” by Caitlin Owens, Axios
Tens of thousands of Americans who stepped up to help test coronavirus vaccines through clinical trials are now stuck without a standard vaccine card to prove it.
July 12: “The Rationing of a Last-Resort Covid Treatment” by Sheri Fink, The New York Times
Throughout the pandemic, such scenes have played out across the country as American doctors found themselves in the unfamiliar position of overtly rationing a treatment. But it was not ventilators, as initially feared: Concerted action largely headed off those shortages. Instead, it was the limited availability of ECMO — which requires expensive equipment similar in concept to a heart-lung machine and specially trained staff who can provide constant monitoring and one-on-one nursing — that forced stark choices among patients.
July 12: “J&J’s Covid-19 Vaccine May Trigger Neurological Condition in Rare Cases, FDA Says” by Helen Branswell, STAT News
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine may trigger a rare neurological condition in a small number of people who receive the vaccine, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday [July 12].
July 13: “Sinovac-Dosed Thai Health Workers to Get AstraZeneca Booster” by Chalida Ekvittayavechnukul, Associated Press
A nighttime curfew and other new coronavirus restrictions began Monday in Thailand’s capital and several other provinces, as health officials announced that medical workers will given booster shots of AstraZeneca vaccine after already receiving two doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine. Thailand is battling rising COVID-19 cases and deaths since April worsened by the spread of the more contagious delta variant that was first identified in India.
July 13: “US COVID-19 Cases Are Rising Again, Doubling Over Three Weeks” by Heather Hollingsworth and Josh Funk, ABC News
The COVID-19 curve in the U.S. is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings.
July 14: “Are Latent Viruses Causing Long Covid-19 Symptoms? Patient Groups Push for Testing” by Sumathi Reddy, The Wall Street Journal
Some long Covid-19 patients and advocacy groups are urging doctors to test more regularly for reactivated viruses. With so few treatment options for long Covid-19, they say, it makes sense to see if a herpes antiviral drug might relieve symptoms. Some doctors say it is worth more testing and further study.
July 14: “Why England’s COVID ‘Freedom Day’ Alarms Researchers” by Phillip Ball, Nature
In less than a week, the UK government plans to drop nearly all measures for mitigating the spread of COVID–19 across England — despite steeply rising infections in the partially vaccinated population.
July 15: “Africa Records a Million New Cases in a Month, Its Fastest Increase So Far.” By Abdi Latif Dahir, The New York Times
The coronavirus is sweeping across Africa at a pace not seen before in the pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, highlighting the severity of a third wave driven by the spread of the Delta variant. One million Covid infections were reported on the continent in the past month alone, pushing the overall caseload to six million, according to the W.H.O., which urged wealthier nations to distribute more vaccine doses.
July 15: “Colleges, Universities with Covid Vaccination Mandates Facing Pushback” by Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC News
Hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation are requiring students to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning to campuses in the fall, but the mandates may be difficult to enforce fully.
July 15: “COVID-19’s Effects on Kids Are Even Stranger Than We Thought” by Roxanne Khamsi, The Atlantic
No more than a few hundred children in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic—compared with more than half a million deaths overall—but more than 4,000 have developed MIS-C, and we still don’t have foolproof ways to cure it.
July 16: “COVID-19 Takes Toll on Catholic Clergy in Hard-Hit Countries” by Luis Andres Henao and Jessie Wardarski, Associated Press
The coronavirus has taken a heavy toll among Roman Catholic priests and nuns around the world, killing hundreds of them in a handful of the hardest-hit countries alone.
July 16: “WHO Proposes Fresh Mission to China and Lab Audits—Diplomats” by Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters
The World Health Organization has proposed a second phase of studies in China into the origins of the coronavirus, including audits of laboratories in Wuhan, but there is no sign yet that Beijing would accept a further international probe, diplomats said.
July 16: “Large Remdesivir Study Finds No COVID-19 Survival Benefit” by Damian McNamara, Medscape
Compared with a matched group of veterans who did not receive the antiviral, remdesivir did not significantly improve survival. The percentages were close: 12.2% of patients in the remdesivir group died within 30 days compared with 10.6% of those in the control group.
July 16: “Why Some Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics Won’t Be Vaccinated” by David Lawler, Axios
Olympic organizers have made a series of major, last-minute policy changes to reduce the risk of a superspreader event, but they declined to employ one particularly powerful tool: a vaccine mandate.
July 16: “Indonesia’s Hospitals Overflow with Covid-19 Patients as Gravediggers Work Into the Night” by Jon Emont, The Wall Street Journal
Cases and deaths have climbed rapidly in Indonesia in recent weeks, as the Delta variant has helped fuel a devastating surge that echoes the one that tore through India in the spring, with whole families becoming ill, hospitals being overwhelmed and people lining up to buy oxygen.
July 16: “African Countries to Receive First U.S. Donated COVID-19 Vaccines in Days-Gavi” by Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters
Nearly 50 African countries are to receive 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the United States, with the first shipments to Burkina Faso, Djibouti and Ethiopia in coming days, U.S. officials and the Gavi vaccine alliance said on Friday [July 16].
July 19: “Unvaccinated Americans Are Behind Rising Covid-19 Hospitalizations” by Melanie Evans and Julie Wernau, Associated Press
The vast majority of patients driving up Covid-19 hospitalizations in parts of the U.S. are unvaccinated, according to hospitals, some of which are reactivating surge plans used in the peak of the pandemic.
July 20: “Third Covid Wave Upends Fragile South Africa, a Warning for Developing World” by Gabriele Steinhauser and Joe Parkinson, The Wall Street Journal
Wave after wave of coronavirus is pummeling South Africa’s fragile economy and its largely unvaccinated population, creating a spiral of death, lockdowns and anger that has fueled the country’s worst rioting since the collapse of white minority rule in 1994.
July 20: “India’s Pandemic Death Toll Could Be in the Millions” by Sheikh Saaliq and Krutika Pathi, Associated Press
India’s excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the South Asian country.
July 20: “Virus Slams Cuba as It Races to Roll Out Its New Vaccines” by Andrea Rodriguez, ABC News
The COVID-19 pandemic is slamming Cuba like never before, even as the country races to roll out its homegrown vaccines — the only locally developed shots being widely used in Latin America.
July 20: “Delta Variant Accounts for 83% of New Cases in US, CDC Director Says” by Maya Yang, The Guardian
The highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, a top federal health official said on Tuesday [July 20].
July 21: “Unvaccinated Staff Eyed in Rising Nursing Home Cases, Deaths” by Jason Dearen and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
Lagging vaccination rates among nursing home staff are being linked to a national increase in COVID-19 infections and deaths at senior facilities, and are at the center of a federal investigation in a hard-hit Colorado location where disease detectives found many workers were not inoculated.
July 21: “How the Delta Variant Achieves Its Ultrafast Spread” by Sara Reardon, Nature
Since first appearing in India in late 2020, the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has become the predominant strain in much of the world. Researchers might now know why Delta has been so successful: people infected with it produce far more virus than do those infected with the original version of SARS-CoV-2, making it very easy to spread.
July 23: “Twofold Increased Risk for Death from COVID-19 in Psych Patients” by Pauline Anderson, Medscape
Patients with a mental illness, particularly a psychotic or mood disorder, are twice as likely to die after infection with SARS-CoV-2 compared with those without a psychiatric diagnosis, according to the results of the largest study of its kind to date.
July 23: “CDC Panel Updates Info on Rare Side Effects After J&J Vaccine” by Brenda Goodman, Medscape
Despite recent reports of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) after the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, independent experts who advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the use of vaccines agree the benefits of the one-dose shot still outweigh its risks.
July 23: “Delta Variant Among the Most Infectious Viruses, CDC Says” by Lindsay Kalter, Medscape
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, called the COVID-19 Delta variant “one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of” and reported more cases and hospitalizations.
July 26: “Vaccine Breakthrough Cases Rising with Delta: Here’s What That Means” by Brenda Goodman, Medscape
Fully vaccinated people continue to be well protected against severe disease and death, even with Delta, but so-called breakthrough cases, where a person gets infected despite being fully vaccinated, are on the rise.
July 26: “Moderna Expanding Kids Vaccine Study to Better Assess Safety” by Matthew Perrone and Linda A. Johnson, Associated Press
Moderna said Monday it plans to expand the size of its COVID-19 vaccine study in younger children to better detect rare side effects, such as a type of heart inflammation recently flagged by U.S. health authorities.
July 27: “Transplant Patients’ Higher Rate of COVID-19 Breakthroughs Boosts Case for Booster Vaccines” by Rachel Fritts, Science
A study out today indicates this lack of antibodies is indeed translating to a much higher risk of “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated transplant recipients.
July 27: “Saudi Arabia to Impose Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate” by Stephen Kalin, Associated Press
Saudi Arabia is set to impose one of the world’s most sweeping vaccine mandates in an attempt to combat hesitancy toward the Covid-19 shots in the kingdom, as governments globally try to confront a new surge in cases of the Delta variant.
July 28: “CDC Calls for Masks in Schools, Hard-Hit Areas, Even if Vaccinated” by Damian McNamara, Medscape
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) once again is recommending that some Americans wear masks indoors. The agency called today for masks in K-12 school settings and in areas of the United States experiencing high or substantial SARS-CoV-2 transmission, even for the fully vaccinated.
July 29: “Israel Is Offering Its Older Citizens a 3rd COVID-19 Shot as Infections Rise” NPR
Israel’s prime minister on Thursday announced that the country would offer a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who have already been vaccinated.
July 30: “Covid-19 Outbreak During Olympics Leads Japan to Widen State of Emergency” by Peter Landers, The Wall Street Journal
Japan widened its state of emergency to the entire Tokyo region and extended it until the end of August in response to a record-setting Covid-19 wave during the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
July 30: “CDC: Delta Variant May Cause Mild COVID Among Fully Vaccinated People” by Marisa Fernandez, Axios
About 74% of 469 COVID-19 cases associated with large gatherings held in Barnstable County, Mass., from July 3 to 17 were among fully vaccinated people, according to data released Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why it matters: The data bolsters emerging evidence that vaccinated people have high viral loads and may transmit the Delta variant as easily as those who are unvaccinated.
July 31: “California Learns Costly Pandemic Lesson About Hospitals” by Don Thompson, Associated Press
“California spent nearly $200 million to set up, operate and staff alternate care sites that ultimately provided little help when the state’s worst coronavirus surge spiraled out of control last winter, forcing exhausted hospital workers to treat patients in tents and cafeterias.”
