• In today’s Recommendations for Industry, we review TAG’s weekly COVID Risk Matrix and its indications.
• COVID-19 cases have risen slightly over the past week (although deaths and hospitalizations have dropped). While vaccination rates have increased slightly; minority population vaccination rates differ from those of White and Asian-Americans.
• Yesterday, the U.S. sent 1.35M doses of J&J vaccines to Mexico.
• Vermont is the leading state for vaccination with 80% of residents >12 years of age at least partially vaccinated.
• The death toll from COVID-19 in the U.S. has neared 600,000 individuals.
• A new study published in Nature has found that (as reported by COVID Act Now) “for each 20 percentage points of people who are vaccinated in a given community, the proportion of unvaccinated people in that community who test positive for COVID decreases in half. These numbers mean that vaccination protects not only vaccinated people, but also unvaccinated people.”
• Through July 4^th, the CDC has declared this month to be the National Vaccine Month of Action through the “We Can Do This Campaign” to mobilize national organizations, community-based partners, influencers, celebrities, athletes, and thousands of volunteers across the nation to empower their communities and get more people vaccinated. https://www.mobilize.us/madetosave/?ACSTrackingID=USCDC_2067-DM59477&ACSTrackingLabel=National%20Vaccine%20Month%20of%20Action%20%20%7C%20COVID-19&deliveryName=USCDC_2067-DM59477Find out more here.
• The Delta Variant is likely to become the dominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S. (and elsewhere).

Public Health & Food Safety:

• A recent Princeton discussion breaks down the need to better understand “wet markets” (without shuttering them all as it would disrupt the food system supply chain) to safeguard human health and biodiversity.

Risk Matrix

TAG’s weekly risk matrices are continuing to show downward trends of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. In particular, states with higher vaccination rates are generally tending to see lower case rates. With these trends, TAG recommends that you continue encourage employee vaccinations, while striving for balance between the risks and benefits of reducing/maintaining your current protections.

TAG has also released a Dial-Back Planning Toolkit that allows you to better characterize the risks in your facility, including accounting for vaccinated individuals, mask-wearing, etc. (Contact us for more information.)

Positive trends –

• The Government Stringency Index is 27 this week. This is the same as last week, indicating a stability in government stringencies. Four (4) states’ (California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon) businesses continue to be in mixed opening stages.
• In Figure 1, this week, we compare the case rate/100K (Table 1) in the population to the percentage of a state’s population that has been fully vaccinated (Table 2). Table 3 compares the previous week’s percentage of states’ populations that have become fully vaccinated full dose (and the rate of change between the last week and this week).
• As with last week, no states have a TPR ≥ 10% or TPR <10% and a case rate ≥25/100K people! This is positive news and incredibly promising!

Table 1.

Figure 1.

Table 2.

Table 3.

• In Monday’s Recommendations for Industry, we discussed the need for a vaccination plan as office workers return to the workplace, and what some businesses are doing. Read more here.
• Global COVID deaths in 2021 have topped all of last year's. COVID-19 deaths in 2021 worldwide have surpassed the total number of COVID-19 deaths in all of 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data yesterday. As of Jun 10, 1,884,146 people have died of COVID-19 in 2021, compared with the 1,880,510 in 2020.
  • South America was the hardest hit continent and concerns rise in Africa about case surge and vaccine supply.
  • As wealthy nations are seeing daily new cases and deaths trend downwards, the pandemic is intensifying in Asia and Latin America where new, highly transmissible variants are spreading. This is largely driven by the difference in vaccination rates across the regions. (WSJ)
• G-7 leaders are planning to donate one billion COVID-19 vaccines to poorer nations, according to CNBC today.

• A large study finds the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine to be about 90% effective.

• A recent FDA review concluded that the J&J vaccine is safe and effective when stored at standard refrigeration temperatures for at least 4.5 months. The extended shelf life comes after state officials warned that a large number of J&J shots would go to waste as vaccination rates decline. While the J&J shot was expected to be critical in expanding vaccine access in low income and rural areas, only 11 million Americans have gotten the J&J vaccine, compared to the over 129 million who received Pfizer or Moderna shots. 
• A CDC-led surveillance study of US children during the first wave of the pandemic found that multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) was a rare complication associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, incidence was significantly higher in non-White racial and ethnic groups.
• Most severe COVID patient autopsies showed muscle inflammation. autopsies of 43 hospitalized COVID patients and 11 patients hospitalized for other health issues in Germany, those with COVID-19 were associated with more skeletal muscle inflammation, according to a study in JAMA Neurology.

• According to a BBC report, a headache, sore throat and runny nose are now the most commonly reported symptoms linked to Covid infection in the UK, researchers say. Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe Covid Symptom study, says catching the Delta variant can feel “more like a bad cold” for younger people. “This variant seems to be working slightly differently,” he says. Chills, loss of appetite, headache and muscle aches were together most strongly linked with being infected, alongside classic symptoms.
• A study from the U.K. found that between December 2020 and May 2021, individuals who got two doses of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine were 79 percent and 80 percent less likely to get COVID, respectively. Read the study.
• The World Health Organization has given emergency authorization to two of China’s vaccines — one from the state-owned company Sinopharm, and the other from Sinovac, a private company based in Beijing. But the Chinese vaccines have come under scrutiny after cases rose in places like Bahrain, Mongolia and Seychelles where large percentages of the population had been inoculated with the Sinopharm vaccine.

• The FDA tells Johnson & Johnson that about 60 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine produced at the Emergent BioSolutions Baltimore factory cannot be used because of possible contamination. FDA plans to allow about 10 million doses to be distributed in the US or sent to other countries, with a warning that regulators cannot guarantee that the company followed good manufacturing practices.
• As infections rise, England braces for delay in reopening’s. Restrictions on social contact are expected to remain in place for a few more weeks because of rising infections due to the delta COVID-19 variant. With the variant estimated to be 60% more contagious, British scientists have urged the prime minister to err on the side of caution and postpone plans to lift most coronavirus restrictions in England on June 21. There is growing speculation that the rules will stay in effect at least until July 19.
• Companies Desperate to Reopen Ask: What’s Your Vaccination Status? While many companies are planning to require office workers to return soon, they also are puzzling over what to do about vaccines – whether to mandate, encourage, cajole or bribe them?
  • Most companies are hoping to avoid requiring vaccines. EEOC says they can, but chief executives fear vaccine mandates would lead to lawsuits, invite political upheaval and be hard to enforce. But they are also worried about safety and the potential for an outbreak to force a company to retrench on masking and social distancing policies, making it even harder to get back to normal.
  • Nearly a third of companies have yet to develop any vaccine policy, according to a survey of 770 companies conducted by Tinypulse.

• In Friday’s Recommendations for Industry, we OSHA’s new guidance on worker COVID-19 protections and the three options TAG sees as possible for businesses. Read more here.
• The U.S. is increasingly unlikely to meet Biden’s July 4^th vaccination goal of having 70% of Americans receiving the at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
• Fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents in Canada may soon no longer need to quarantine in a hotel upon return. However, returning individuals would still be required to have a COVID-19 test upon arrival and isolate until test is returned as negative.
• Currently, the Delta COVID-19 variant makes up 6% of all US COVID-19 cases.
• OSHA has updated its guidance for worker protection, specifically in higher-risk workplaces (as in the food and agriculture industry). We discuss this in our Recommendations for Industry
• J&J has released a statement indicating that they have received FDA approval to increase storage time of their vaccine from 3 months to 4.5 months. Healthcare professionals may check the expiration dates of vaccines they have on-hand on J&J’s site.
• In the U.S., middle-aged populations of all racial groups (and diversified populations) account for the highest proportion of COVID-19-related deaths now.
• Chile’s capital is locking down despite having >60% of its population fully vaccinated as cases continue to rise for many that are unvaccinated (which has increased hospital capacity and burden).
• A recent report about the UK’s first post-COVID-19 clinic at the University College London Hospitals has found many concerning and important findings (and continued perplexities) specific to long-term COVID-19 symptomology (also what we refer to as “long-haul COVID”).

Public Health & Food Safety:

• Food banks welcome $1 billion investment by USDA. USDA refocused its efforts to tackle hunger, shutting down the Farmers to Families Food Box program and instead focusing on existing distribution channels for charitable food and investing $1 billion to support food banks. The aid includes $500 million to purchase nutritious, domestically produced food for state food bank networks through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Another $400 million will go toward purchases aimed at strengthening local and regional food systems, and the final $100 million is earmarked for operational costs.
• Report shows reasons for concern about animal operations near produce – In a new report, the FDA continues to express concerns about farm animal operations close by and adjacent to produce growing fields, specifically peach orchards this time. The report, released June 11, outlines data from an investigation into a 2020 Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak linked to whole fresh peaches that sickened 101 people across 17 states, including 28 hospitalizations. It appears to be the first time a Salmonella outbreak has been linked to peaches, according to federal health officials.
• Both the WHO and FAO are highlighting the importance of science and technology in ensuring and continuing to build food safety efforts.
• The CDC’s recent MMWR on “Outbreaks Associated with Treated Recreational Water” has found that between 2015 – 2019, 208 outbreaks were identified with 76 outbreaks associated with Cryptosporidium and 65 associated with
• The FDA has amended its Standard of Identity for yogurt.

• On June 7^th, the WHO committed to stepping up actions to improve food safety and protect people from disease. The WHO has developed and released a “handbook to help countries measure their foodborne disease burden and identify food safety system needs and data gaps so they can strengthen national infrastructure and better protect people’s health.” Read more, here.
• Food Safety News reports on a recent report finding a decrease in STEC infections across Europe in 2019.
• Although many women may be hesitant to get the flu vaccine while pregnant, increasing number of studies have found that infants who were exposed to the flu vaccine (while in the womb) did not have an increased likelihood of adverse outcomes!
• The FDA has approved the second ever smallpox drug