VACCINE NEWS

Kansas COVID-19 Vaccination Overview as of 4/27/2022

• 4,332,924 Total Doses Reported as Administered      
  – First Dose: 1,963,171
  – Second Dose: 1,594,090
  – Third Dose: 775,664
• 5,657,310 Total Doses Distributed      
  – State Distributed: 3,069,000
• 62.7% of Kansans Vaccinated with One Dose    
• 54.6% of Kansas Completed COVID-19 Vaccine Series 

Source: https://www.kansasvaccine.gov/158/Data 

LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS

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LEADINGAGE NATIONAL NEWS

A Fall Surge is Likely 
Interview with Ghinwa Dumyati, infectious disease physician and professor of medicine. A fall surge is likely and protections like vaccines, boosters, masking, distancing, and improving ventilation are additive. COVID therapeutic drugs should be increasingly available over the next weeks, but Paxlovid interacts with more than 100 medications, so that needs to be considered in determining what will work best for the individual. Dr. Dumyati, of the University of Rochester Medical Center joined the Coronavirus Update Call today and shared her insights which are summarized in this article. One question came up after Dr. Dumyati left: if a person was fully vaccinated with two doses of Moderna or Pfizer or one dose of J&J in early 2021, do those vaccines offer much protection? Her answer was that compared to the unvaccinated person, there is some protection. Hospitalization, however, if the person does contract COVID, is lower in those who are boosted. See this CDC explanation about rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations by vaccine status.

Congressional Update
The House and Senate are back for what’s looking like a busy May legislative session. We expect continued focus on Ukraine aid in the coming weeks. However, there are other items on the agenda that LeadingAge is tracking very closely, including COVID relief.  When lawmakers recessed two weeks ago, the Senate had failed to reach an agreement to pass a $10 billion COVID funding package for testing, treatments, and vaccines. The stalemate was due to a disagreement over a border-enforcement policy, known as Title 42, named after a section of the U.S. Code that prevents immigrants from seeking asylum. Another concern was the final funding amount of the $10 billion, which began as a request from of $22.5 billion from the Administration. As members of Congress return to Washington to engage in further discussions on COVID relief, we will be there to continue fighting for additional assistance, including additional funding for provider relief, which was not included in the last proposal.

Additional items of importance are government funding and economic relief. President Biden sent the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget request to Congress on March 28th. Of course, Congress will identify its own priorities, as it holds the Constitutional power of the purse. In fact, House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders will meet this week to discuss top-line funding for Fiscal Year 2023, and hearings are already underway to exam the Administration’s budget request, which we are watching closely. Meanwhile, the House and Senate are considering how to move forward on an economic package. Unfortunately, the Build Back Better Act hit a wall, and ongoing discussions have been a challenge, but the fight isn’t over. A separate innovation package was developed to invest in scientific research, funding the development of new technologies, and bolstering domestic production of semiconductors. Both chambers have passed their respective versions with significant differences between the two bills, and members of Congress are now beginning the process of reconciling the two versions to produce a final bill for passage. Given that this bill might be one of the larger measures that Congress passes, it might also provide an opportunity to include additional priorities. So please stay tuned for additional updates down the road.

RESOURCES

White House Fact Sheet on COVID Treatments
Today the White House released a fact sheet, “Biden Administration Increases Access to COVID-19 Treatments and Boosts Patient and Provider Awareness.” Topline messages in the announcement:

• The Administration is nearly doubling the number of places antivirals will be available in the coming weeks.
• There’s a new effort to stand up federally supported Test-To-Treat Sites to meet demand and increase equity in access.
• The Administration is doubling down on efforts to help health care providers understand and prescribe treatments.
• Now that supply is available, public awareness and education about treatments will be ramped up.

COVID-19 Was Third Leading Cause of Death in the United States
CDC released two reports on CDC’s National Vital Statistics System to look at death rates in the United States and find that differences in death rates still remain between certain racial and ethnic minority groups. The first report provides an overview of provisional U.S. mortality data for 2021, including a comparison of death rates for all causes of death and for deaths involving COVID-19. The study found that the overall age-adjusted death rate increased by almost 1% in 2021 from 2020. Overall death rates were highest among non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaskan Native and non-Hispanic Black or African American people. For the second year, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.

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