HOW MANY COVID DEATHS ARE OK? Recently, Biden administration officials have been privately mulling the number of daily Covid-19 deaths at which the virus could be considered to be under control, POLITICO's Rachael Levy reports. The number of 200 daily deaths or fewer was kicked around in discussions across the administration until it was ultimately decided not to formally incorporate it into pandemic planning, sources said. Fewer than 200 people dead a day would translate to about 73,000 deaths a year, slightly more than what the U.S. experiences during a bad flu season. The discussions, though described as purely "exploratory," underscore the delicate balance the administration walks between trying to minimize Covid-19's harm and encouraging Americans to live with it, even as the CDC expects deaths to rise in the weeks ahead as cases are forecast to surge nationwide. On June 3, the average daily number of Covid-19 deaths was 414. At no point since the pandemic's first weeks have fewer than 200 Americans died a day at a sustained rate. WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT … The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is analyzing more than 100 deaths that could be attributed to long Covid, reports POLITICO's Erin Banco. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics is reviewing death certificates from across the country from 2020 and 2021 that cite long Covid or similar terminology, such as "post Covid." It's unclear whether the people who died had underlying health issues and whether long Covid was the cause of their deaths or a contributing factor. The center is expected to release preliminary data from the review shortly. Why it matters: Doctors and public health officials are scrambling to assess the risk that long Covid poses to Americans — and the world. A recent CDC study found that as many as one-fifth of adults infected with Covid-19 had at least one lingering health problem, meaning that millions of Americans are potentially impacted. The condition's severity ranges greatly, from minor symptoms that improve within weeks or months to severely debilitating health problems that dramatically affect patients' lives. What the research says: Few studies have examined the relationship between long Covid and mortality. A study of European cancer patients, published in The Lancet in November 2021, found that about 15 percent of those who survived Covid-19 had long Covid symptoms and their survival outcomes were significantly worse. MONKEYPOX AND COMMUNITY SPREAD — Health officials warn that monkeypox may be spreading person to person in the U.S. and that cases are expected to rise as the government calls on doctors to stay vigilant for symptoms of the rare disease. The CDC reports 24 confirmed cases in 12 states, Krista writes. "I want to emphasize that this could be happening in other parts of the United States," said Jennifer McQuiston, the incident manager for CDC's monkeypox response, on Friday. "There could be community-level transmission that is happening, and that's why we want to really increase our surveillance efforts." The CDC says the risk to Americans' public health remains low in the unusual global outbreak. Monkeypox is rarely seen outside West and Central Africa, where it is endemic. Since May, more than 900 cases have been reported in nonendemic countries in Europe, North America and South America and in Australia. So far, no deaths have been reported in those regions, unlike in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the disease is endemic and 1,200 cases and 58 deaths have been reported since the beginning of the year. The World Health Organization has characterized the risk to global public health as "moderate" and said it suspects the virus was spreading between individuals in Europe weeks before it was reported in early May.
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