Watch the AMA's daily COVID-19 update, with insights from AMA leaders and experts about the pandemic.
Featured topic and speakers
In today’s COVID-19 update, AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger and AMA Chief Health and Science Officer Mira Irons, MD, take a weekly look at the numbers and trends for COVID-19, including information about an upcoming new webinar series that addresses the science, evidence and regulatory process for vaccine development.
Learn more at the AMA COVID-19 resource center.
Speakers
- Mira Irons, MD, chief health and science officer, AMA
Transcript
Unger: Hello, this is the American Medical Association's COVID-19 Update. Today, we're taking our weekly look at the numbers, trends and latest news about COVID-19 with AMA's Chief Health and Science Officer Dr. Mira Irons in Chicago. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer in Chicago. Dr. Irons, before we get started on the review of the numbers, I wanted to talk a little bit about a very important webinar on the topic of vaccinations. Can you tell everyone about that?
Dr. Irons: Sure. Thanks very much, Todd. I agree that this is really important. We are beginning a new webinar series for the AMA to address the science, evidence, and process of vaccine development and the regulatory process that's going to go along with them... As you know, from the beginning of the pandemic, we've really focused on, what do physicians need to know? And during the vaccine development process, it's important for physicians to understand the rigor of the process that the vaccines will go through in this period.
The first episode is happening this week. We have Dr. Peter Marks, who is the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, he will be speaking on the webinar. Dr. Bailey, the president of the AMA, will be moderating that and the discussion will go into depth on the FDA vaccine review process, including what the process looks like for COVID vaccine candidates, the differences between an emergency use authorization and the biological license application pathways, and the ability to direct questions to Dr. Marks. The registration details can be found on AMA's website, ama-assn.org. Doctors can also submit questions for the question and answer period.
Unger: Well, thank you very much. Again, that webinar with Dr. Marks will occur at 2:00 PM Central time, October 7th. The second in the series will occur next week. Please look for details on the AMA site, ama-assn.org. Thank you. Dr. Irons, let's go now into a review of this week's trends and numbers. What is happening with new cases and deaths? It looks like we are looking at rising cases.
Dr. Irons: We are, Todd. The latest figure as of this morning is 7,418,738 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19. As I said before, we think that number is an underestimate, and 209,734 people have died. Globally, those numbers are 35 and a half million infected over 1 million deaths. The numbers, we have seen the highs in the summer and then they came down a little bit. Now we're starting to see upticks. The seven day average is about 43,000 a day. However, if you look at last week, last I believe Friday and Saturday were about 50,000 and 54,000 new cases. The deaths are holding steady and in some places they're decreasing, but we're starting to see slight upticks in hospitalizations and we know that that occurs about a week or so after the diagnoses have been made. The aggregate figures around the country aren't as instructive as looking at individual states. The Sunbelt seems to have come down, but what we're seeing is an increase in the Heartland. States like Wisconsin, over 20% positive rate. North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho. And so, COVID is continuing its march around the country.
Unger: And that number is pretty significant because I think at that level and above, it's a loud signal that the outbreak in the state has spun out of control, that being Wisconsin. That is a great deal of concern. What are the drivers in trends that we're seeing? Why are we seeing these rising number of cases and deaths?
Dr. Irons: It's unclear. I think every state has a different story to tell. Certainly there are some states where the public health mitigation measures aren't being taken possibly as seriously as they should be, wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands, can't say it enough. Schools opening, colleges opening in different states have certainly caused an uptick. Rallies, we've seen that. But also, the cooler weather. We may start to see some impact of cooler weather and moving indoors, especially indoors in areas that aren't ventilated as well.
Unger: Well, I know I ate outside last night and it was pretty chilly, so that is concerning. We talk a little bit about what we're seeing at the college and high school level in different cities.
Dr. Irons: Yeah, it seems as though with this pandemic, the word novel really has meaning and we continue to learn as things open up. And we're finding that colleges continue to drive tens of thousands of new cases, but some have been successful in controlling the virus and some of those successes have actually been in the smaller colleges. Colleges with smaller populations that can actually keep a closer eye on their student population with testing, with a combination of testing, contact tracing, and reinforcing the public health measures. We're learning a lot about how to open schools from them. We're also seeing that some of the research labs, like the Broad Institute in Boston which is a world-class research lab, has really shifted a significant effort to diagnostic testing and they're working with many of the colleges in that Boston area to offer diagnostic testing so that educators can keep an eye on their student body.
Unger: New York, also on the verge, just reopened classrooms for hundreds of thousands of students this week. What's the outlook there?
Dr. Irons: Well, they did reopen about 1800 public schools potentially, but I think that now we're starting to see that that may be dialing back. Mayor de Blasio has announced that he intends to rewind the reopening of nine neighborhoods in New York City because of slight upticks that are going up. And so, I think they're keeping a close eye on it.
Unger: Excellent. Lastly, any key messages the AMA wants people to hear about this week beyond the webinar on the 7th at 2:00 PM central time?
Dr. Irons: Yep. As many people know, the National Academy of Medicine released their report on prioritization of a COVID vaccine. Last Friday, the AMA issued a statement applauding the National Academy of Medicine on equitable allocation of vaccine. We know that the COVID-19 vaccine supply will not initially be available to the entire population and the principles are vital to prioritizing the groups that should receive the vaccine to protect public health and reduce virus transmission, illness, and death. There was a press release also last Wednesday reinforcing the need to get flu vaccines. We're heading into flu season. It's really important for everyone over six months of age to get a flu vaccine to decrease the risk of illness from the flu. And then once again, as we go into winter, we can't overemphasize the need to wear masks, social distance, wash your hands, the public health mitigation efforts, and also thinking about ventilation. If you're inside or you're traveling to restaurants, other areas, you really need good ventilation systems.
Unger: Good advice. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Irons, for being here today, sharing your perspectives. That's it for today's COVID-19 update. We'll be back tomorrow with another segment. For updated resources on COVID-19, visit ama-assn.org/COVID-19. Thanks for joining us and please take care.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
