Monkeypox Outbreak Update by Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH | AMA COVID-19 Update Video

See the AMA’s COVID-19 update. Includes pandemic insights from AMA leaders and experts.

In today’s COVID-19 update, this September’s COVID-19 booster, the CDC has designated monkeypox as a national notifiable condition, the outbreak continues, and new CPT codes have been added. This is covered by Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, AMA’s Director of Science, Medicine and Public Health. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger will host.

Access guidance and descriptors For the new monkeypox CPT code.

For more information, AMA COVID-19 Resource Center.

speaker

• Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, Director of Science, Medicine and Public Health, American Medical Association

Unger: hello. Here is his COVID-19 update video and podcast from the American Medical Association. Today we join Andrea Garcia, director of science, medicine and public health at his AMA in Chicago, for a weekly look at the numbers, trends and breaking news on COVID-19. Also in Chicago, he’s the chief of the AMA, he’s Todd Unger, the experience officer.

Andrea, over the past month we’ve been talking a lot about the BA.5 subvariant and how it’s causing new cases. Will it continue this week too?

Garcia: Thank you for returning. And yeah, BA.5 continues to be the dominant stock. However, an estimated 124,000 new cases are being reported each day as of July 30, according to the New York Times.

But I think the good news is that it’s down 5% from the last two weeks. That said, I believe there are still about 46% of counties in the US with high COVID-19 community levels, based on CDC metrics. And about half of the states are still seeing a modest increase in new cases. However, it is slowly declining in the other half. That’s good news.

Unger: That’s good news. I know it’s too early to tell, but I hope this drop is the start of a bigger downtrend. Do you see it in downstream hospitalization and mortality statistics?

Garcia: yet. And as you mentioned, these are lagging indicators, so it’s too early. However, the number of hospitalized patients continues to increase. They are well below the peaks reached in previous surges. Nationwide, about 43,000 people are hospitalized with her COVID per day. Hospitalizations have increased by about 6% over the past two weeks.

And if you look at the daily death toll, that number is higher than it was in July. The number of deaths per day is about 440, and it’s clear that at the height of Omicron’s surge he’s a lot less than 2,600 per day, but still we’d love to see More than there are.

Unger: Now, let’s talk a little bit about booster shots. News about a possible reorganization for the fall is here, possibly sooner than expected. What’s the word there?

Garcia: It has been widely reported that the Biden administration is preparing to launch a COVID booster campaign in September. The booster dose will be a bivalent vaccine. It is designed to provide stronger protection against the currently dominant Omicron variant. These boosters include BA.4 and BA.5 components and original formulations based on the first version of the virus that spread worldwide in early 2020.

Unger: Originally I was worried about the timeline, so I’m curious. what changed?

Garcia: That’s right. And Moderna and Pfizer were already working quickly to meet the FDA’s request to have his new bivalent booster ready by October or November. But the FDA announced its fall strategy last week, saying it has received assurances from those manufacturers that the recalibrated boosters will be ready in September. The hope here is that bivalent vaccines will become more effective against rapidly evolving viruses and help protect us from potential fall and winter surges.

Unger: You know, those turnaround times are pretty miraculous. I hope people appreciate the science and work behind preparing for winter storm surges.

Of course, in addition to having these vaccines ready, an important next step is getting people vaccinated. understood. And that can really become a problem when kids go back to school. Know more about the numbers out there?

Garcia: Yeah, the FDA approved it, and the CDC recommended Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for six-month-olds in June. We know some parents are eagerly awaiting that approval, but new survey data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that many parents with young children are still reluctant to vaccinate their children. indicates that there is In fact, 4 or more of her parents in 10 said they would not vaccinate children under the age of 5. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, as of July 20, less than 3% of her children under the age of five, or about 544,000, had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Unger: And are the studies and figures consistent with other studies conducted prior to those specific approvals?

Garcia: So this particular study, published last week, shows a real increase in the number of parents who said they would not vaccinate their young children. compared to the previous January and April surveys. And it’s not just for the youngest kids. Only about 30% of her 5- to 11-year-old children who were eligible for the vaccine in November received at least one of her doses.

And the pace at which that group got vaccinated has slowed considerably. Findings recognize a lack of research, potential side effects. We know we really need ongoing conversations and reassurances from doctors about vaccines being safe and effective. I’m back.

Unger: And importantly, as Dr. Peter Hotes mentioned in a discussion with them last week, there are significant downsides to keeping children vaccinated. , are experiencing problems with the prolonged COVID. These are very serious. And obviously it will be enhanced to increase their number. I know the AMA will continue to provide resources for physicians on how to conduct these conversations.

Another concern, obviously, which has been making headlines and continues to make the headlines, is monkeypox. What’s the latest news there?

Garcia: Now, the National and Territorial Council of Epidemiologists and the CDC announced last week that monkeypox is on the list of national notifiable diseases. This he will take effect on August 1st. States have enacted legislation making monkeypox a reportable disease in their jurisdictions, and jurisdictions conducting surveillance are encouraged to submit notifications of those cases to the CDC.

Monkeypox is designated an immediate notification emergency. That means these case reports he needs to be sent to the CDC within 24 hours. Of course, this was more than two months after the disease began spreading in the United States. The move is designed to help the CDC better understand how fast the virus is spreading. It also allows authorities to monitor and respond to monkeypox even if the current epidemic subsides. Currently, the CDC reports 5,811 confirmed monkeypox cases in the United States, and the number continues to rise.

Unger: Well, for all the doctors, residents students who have questions about monkeypox, we’ve heard your questions.We’ve created the Monkeypox Resource Center on the AMA site. If you don’t see it on the home page, type “monkeypox”. A lot of information is displayed. I will also be speaking with Dr. Sandra Freihofer, Chair of the AMA Board of Directors, on what physicians should know about monkeypox.

Andrea, given the numbers you’re talking about and the reports we’re seeing, I’m very concerned here about where this has gone. How are you doing?

Garcia: President Biden has tapped two new individuals to lead the nation’s monkeypox response. And he’s pulling information from both his FEMA and CDC. Robert Fenton, who helped spearhead FEMA’s massive vaccination effort against COVID as the agency’s acting administrator when Biden first took office, will be the White House coordinator for monkeypox.

And Dr. Demetre Daskalakis of the CDC will represent him. We know Dr. Daskalakis is the head of his HIV prevention division at his CDC. He is a national expert on issues affecting the LGBTQ community. He also previously led an HIV prevention effort in New York City. He’s also been really instrumental in his equity efforts at the CDC during the COVID pandemic.

Unger: And given the level of concern, it’s great news to have such an impressive leader take the reins here. What is the current position on the market? Is demand still outstripping supply?

Garcia: The Department of Health and Human Services reports that 340,000 doses have already been delivered nationwide since the start of the outbreak. We know the FDA has approved his 800,000 booster dose of the Genos vaccine. Remember, this is a two-dose vaccine. These doses have been assigned to jurisdictions based on the number of cases and the size of the population at risk.

Part of the challenge I hear is the lack of supply transparency. Therefore, jurisdictions do not know when and how long the vaccine will arrive. And that makes their planning work very difficult.

Unger: bet. Now, in another sign of just how serious the situation is, last week the World Health Organization also declared monkeypox a global health emergency. I’m here. Please tell me more about it.

Garcia: At the time of this shoot, we saw three states declare a state of emergency in response to the monkeypox outbreak. It started in New York last Friday and continued in Illinois and California on Monday. Together, these three states report 47% of confirmed monkeypox infections in the United States. We also know that declaring a state of emergency gives these states an opportunity to expand resources, including vaccine ramp-ups and testing efforts. And I think we will continue to see these declarations made as states step up their efforts to more effectively manage their response to the disease.

Unger: Well, testing has always been a problem from the beginning. Is it still a challenge?

Garcia: It is, but there are ongoing efforts. I hear that the capacity is increasing. And last Thursday, her HHS Director Becerra reported that the US now has the capacity to perform 60,000 to 80,000 monkeypox tests in her week. And that’s up from just 6,000 tests in the first week of the outbreak. It should also be clarified where people can get tested if they think they have monkeypox.

Unger: On a real level, in another sign of an increase in case numbers, the AMA has announced new CPT codes following the monkeypox outbreak. What do doctors need to know about this?

Garcia: As such, the AMA has created three new CPT codes, a new laboratory test code, in response to the outbreak. This came at an opportune time for commercial labs to ramp up testing, after which two new vaccine codes were created. And we’ll put a link where doctors can find more information about them and how to use them in this episode’s description.

Unger: Andrea, thank you for joining us today. So that concludes today’s episode. We also have another COVID-19 update video and podcast for you. For COVID-19 resources, please visit: ama-assn.org/COVID-19 And check out the AMA Monkeypox Resource Center Visit the AMA site. Thank you for joining us today. Please be careful.

Disclaimer: The perspectives expressed in this video are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the AMA.