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    March Madness: No. 1 Seed Arizona Is Out; Duke Stays In

    Peter Watson
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    March Madness: No. 1 Seed Arizona Is Out; Duke Stays In

    SAN ANTONIO — The last time Houston made consecutive trips to the round of 8 in the N.C.A.A. tournament was in a vastly different era of college basketball — when the program dominated in the early 1980s with its high-flying pace with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, two Naismith Hall of Famers, and was famously given the name Phi Slama Jama.

    Houston, a No. 5 seed in this year’s tournament, easily dispatched its first two opponents, No. 12-seeded University of Alabama at Birmingham and No. 4-seeded Illinois, and the Cougars seemed to handle Arizona, the South Region’s top seed, almost just as easily on Thursday night, beating the Wildcats 72-60 in the round of 16.

    Arizona became the third No. 1 seed to fall this tournament, after Gonzaga lost earlier Thursday night and Baylor was knocked out in the round of 32. The only remaining No. 1 is Kansas, which plays its round of 16 game against Providence on Friday.

    Houston players slipped by Arizona defenders for easy layups. They crashed the offensive glass to create more possessions. Their athletic blocks fired up their fans, who took up a sizable portion of the seats inside the AT&T Center in San Antonio, about a three-hour drive from the university’s campus.

    They turned great defense into effortless offense.

    In the first half, Houston guard Jamal Shead intercepted Arizona center Christian Koloko’s cross-court pass and scored a fast-break layup. On Arizona’s next offensive possession, forward Fabian White Jr. blocked Azuolas Tubelis’s driving layup attempt and corralled the rebound to set up another layup at the other basket. Those were indicators of why Houston entered the tournament with one of the top-ranked defenses in Division I.

    By the end of the first half, the Cougars, winners of the American Athletic Conference tournament, had outscored Arizona in the paint 18 to 4, and held Arizona to 1 of 6 on layups.

    Arizona’s ability to get to the free-throw line and force Houston players into foul trouble was a big reason the Wildcats’ halftime deficit was only 6 points.

    Taze Moore, one of Houston’s starting guards who averages about 30 minutes per game, spent much of the first half on the bench with three fouls and picked up a fourth less than 10 minutes into the second half. He finished with just 3 points.

    Turnovers and allowing second-chance points hurt Arizona in the first two rounds against Wright State and Texas Christian. Untimely turnovers kept the Wildcats from cutting too far into Houston’s lead, even when they went on runs to cut it to 4 or 3 points. Houston scored 24 points off turnovers compared with Arizona’s 6.

    The Cougars have never won an N.C.A.A. men’s basketball championship, not in six trips to the Final Four, not even with some of the most lauded players in basketball history. Athleticism and grit have carried this Cougars team this far, and on Thursday the Cougars seemed determined to make sure that drought didn’t continue for another season.

    As the final seconds ticked off the clock, they had already started celebrating, as Arizona players crouched to the court with tears in their eyes — not the first No. 1 seed to suffer an early exit in an N.C.A.A. tournament, and surely not the last.

    — Alanis Thames

    SAN FRANCISCO — For much of the night, Mike Krzyzewski took his usual spot on the Duke bench — the third seat from the scorer’s table — and stayed there. His hands fidgeted, sometimes resting on his chin, other times gesturing down the bench or pointing to a spot on the court where he wanted a player to station himself.

    But as the clock ticked down — and the tension ratcheted up — Krzyzewski was on his feet. If this was it, the final game of his storied career, he was at least going down standing, calling out plays, orchestrating the offense and exhorting the defense.

    And so it was as Duke extended Krzyzewski’s career another night, holding off Texas Tech for a 78-73 victory to advance to the brink of the Final Four. Earlier, the path had been cleared of Gonzaga, the No. 1 overall seed in the bracket, which lost to Arkansas, though the Blue Devils had already beaten the Zags earlier this season.

    Adonis Arms hit a 3-pointer that put Texas Tech within 75-73 with 13.1 seconds left. After Texas Tech called a timeout, the Red Raiders fouled A.J. Griffin, who made both free throws with 12.9 seconds left. Duke then intentionally fouled to drain time from the clock, and when Arms missed another 3-pointer and Paulo Banchero grabbed the rebound, Krzyzewski threw his arms in the air.

    When the buzzer sounded, he slapped his hands together and began to walk toward the Texas Tech bench, thrilled to coach one more day.

    It was a balanced effort that bought the Blue Devils another day with Banchero scoring 22 points, Jeremy Roach breaking down the Texas Tech defense to add 15 points and 5 assists, and center Mark Williams adding 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks.

    But it was at the defensive end where Duke found some much-needed resolve, including resurrecting their floor slap with a minute left to play, which riled the crowd.

    Duke arrived here with wins over Cal State Fullerton and Michigan State, the later one a severe test, having to rally late without Griffin, who had injured his ankle. Krzyzewski afterward appeared as drained as his players — and just as buoyed to be moving on.

    Krzyzewski, 75, took the rare step last June of announcing his retirement effective at the end of this season. It will continue for at least one more game, Saturday against Arkansas.

    Texas Tech did not make it easy, though. The Red Raiders have the most efficient defense in the country, according to Ken Pomeroy’s statistical analysis, forcing the ball to one side of the lane, then overloading their defense in that direction. Mark Adams, the architect of the defense, was an assistant in 2019 when the Red Raiders came within a last-second shot of winning the national title.

    Adams, 65, who has spent his career beating the bushes of junior college and small college basketball, had to rebuild the roster. Among those who arrived was Kevin Obanor, who helped lead Oral Roberts on a stunning run to the round of 16 last year.

    Obanor was very much at home on this stage on Thursday night, notching a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. But it wasn’t enough to advance.

    — Billy Witz

    SAN ANTONIO — Villanova, leading by 6 points in a game that felt closer with eight minutes remaining, was patient and precise. Players zipped the ball around and across Michigan defenders, waiting for the ideal scoring opportunity. Finally, Caleb Daniels, Villanova’s redshirt senior guard, grabbed the ball in the paint and drove forward, his body running into the 6-foot-11 Wolverines forward Moussa Diabate as the ball went through the hoop. The sound of an official’s whistle followed, setting up a 3-point play.

    The Wildcats didn’t join their fans in celebrating, though. They got back on defense. The No. 11-seeded Wolverines, like they had all evening, were sure to respond. And with a pair of jump shots and some free throws, Villanova’s lead, once 9 in the half, was 4.

    But No. 2-seeded Villanova, after playing far from its best game, got a driving layup by Jermaine Samuels and a 3-pointer on its next possession, establishing enough of a cushion to get past the Wolverines, 63-55, on Thursday in the round of 16 in San Antonio.

    Coach Jay Wright’s Wildcats, one of two Big East teams left in the N.C.A.A. tournament along with Providence, have shown that the conference is all but theirs until another program pries it out of their 3-point-shooting hands. But any team that was ranked as high as No. 4 in the regular season would be looking for more than a conference championship, which the Wildcats won in Madison Square Garden this month for the fourth time since 2017.

    “We’re beat up. We’ve got to rest up,” Wright said. “We can learn a little bit watching film. It’s about surviving now.”

    Villanova took down Michigan in the national title game in 2018, but has had worse luck in the tournament since: In 2019, the Wildcats were defeated by Purdue in the second round, and last year they were knocked out in the round of 16 by Baylor, the eventual champion.

    But now, the Wildcats are one win away from their seventh Final Four appearance in program history during a run in which they have won two national championships since 2016 and produced formidable N.B.A. talent.

    Donte DiVincenzo of the Sacramento Kings, Mikal Bridges of the Phoenix Suns, Jalen Brunson of the Dallas Mavericks and more have come through the program in recent years.

    Collin Gillespie, Villanova’s sharpshooting graduate student guard, will enter the upcoming draft after leading the Wildcats with nearly 16 points per game this season and stationing himself as one of the best 3-point shooters in men’s college basketball. Gillespie hit four of 10 3-point attempts against Michigan, playing all but one minute and finishing with 12 points.

    Villanova, as a team, didn’t shoot the ball well from beyond the arc. Of 30 3-point attempts, Villanova made nine, while the Wolverines were 6 of 18 from deep.

    Michigan surprised many by reaching this round of the tournament, given the Wolverines’ up-and-down season, which included Coach Juwan Howard’s five-game suspension after a postgame skirmish with a Wisconsin coach. But the Wolverines had the size advantage they needed to be successful against the smaller Wildcats. Michigan went down low to its leading scorer and big man, Hunter Dickinson, early, and he found success there, finishing with 15 points and 15 rebounds despite being in foul trouble. Villanova inserted a smaller lineup and drew two quick fouls on Dickinson in the first half, and he finished with four fouls.

    “We didn’t run into anybody anywhere like Hunter Dickinson,” Wright said after the game. “Man, this dude is a handful. He’s got size, girth, strength, skill, intelligence, competitiveness. We run into some good ones in the middle, but I think he’s the best we’ve run into this year.”

    But on a mediocre shooting night for both teams, Michigan missed too many of the shots that mattered, including, uncharacteristically, the ones around the rim and half of its free throws.

    “We got good looks,” said Eli Brooks, Michigan’s graduate student guard. “We just didn’t capitalize. I think we got the looks that we wanted. We just didn’t make the shots.”

    — Alanis Thames

    Covid-19: BA.2 more severe for children, Hong Kong study finds, though serious outcomes uncommon

    Peter Watson
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    Covid-19: BA.2 more severe for children, Hong Kong study finds, though serious outcomes uncommon
    The findings are considered preliminary because they come from a preprint, or a study that has not been scrutinized by outside researchers or published in a medical journal. They have also not been confirmed by other studies, which makes them less certain.

    “I think it’s a little hard to know what that will look like here, where probably a large fraction of our population has been exposed at some point before either to Delta or BA.1,” said Dr. Beth Thielen, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

    But Thielen notes that the study offers an important look at the raw power of this variant in a vulnerable population. It also highlights the urgency of Covid-19 vaccination for kids and the need for more treatments for this age group.

    “Right now, we’re fairly limited,” Thielen said. “We can give remdesivir, but we don’t have a lot of other drug treatment tools.”

    BA.2 hits a vulnerable population

    Throughout the pandemic, Hong Kong has implemented strict Covid control measures including universal masking, stringent social distancing, contact tracing and business and school closures. As a result, this city had low case levels and relatively little exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus through most of the pandemic.

    At least that was true until the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron strain hit the city. Since then, Hong Kong has seen an alarming rise in cases and deaths, particularly in its elderly population, many of whom had been reluctant to be vaccinated.

    But children weren’t spared from BA.2 either, and the new study compares the outcomes for children hospitalized with this variant to outcomes for kids hospitalized with previous variants (between January 2020 and November 2021), parainfluenza or the flu. Data on children hospitalized with parainfluenza and influenza came from medical records between January 2015 and December 2018.

    In February 2022, during the height of Hong Kong’s Omicron wave, which was mostly caused by BA.2, 1,147 children were hospitalized, and four died.

    The children who died were 11 months, 3 years, 4 years and 9 years old. Three had previously been in good health, and the 9-year-old had muscular dystrophy. None was vaccinated against Covid-19. Two children died from encephalitis, or swelling in their brains.

    These were the first children to die of Covid-19 in Hong Kong during the pandemic.

    When the researchers compared fatality rates, they found that children hospitalized with BA.2 had seven times higher odds of dying compared with those hospitalized with the flu, and more than six times higher odds of dying from BA.2 than from parainfluenza.

    The case fatality rates were 0.35% for BA.2, 0.05% for influenza and 0.04% for parainfluenza, which causes croup.

    In addition, the odds that children would need to be admitted to the pediatric ICU were 18 times higher for BA.2 compared with previous Covid-19 variants, more than twice as high as for the flu and roughly on par with the risks for children hospitalized with parainfluenza.

    China's zero-Covid policy is showing signs of strain. But ditching it now could be a disaster

    No cases of febrile seizures were recorded in Hong Kong during previous variants. But children with Omicron’s BA.2 subvariant had three times the odds of having a seizure caused by a fever compared with those with flu and more than four times greater odds compared to those with parainfluenza.

    Kids with BA.2 also had higher risks of brain swelling than children with parainfluenza but about the same as those with the flu.

    In terms of respiratory complications, 5% of hospitalized children infected with BA.2 developed croup, compared with 0.27% of children with other Covid-19-causing variants, making the odds of having group about 11 times higher for BA.2 than for previous variants.

    They were about twice as likely to have croup with BA.2 than children hospitalized with the flu.

    The study researchers, from the University of Hong Kong, concluded that “The intrinsic severity of Omicron BA.2 is not mild as evident by the fatality and severe complications of the uninfected and unvaccinated children.”

    Prepare but don’t panic

    Though the study findings may seem scary, Dr. Claudia Hoyen, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, says parents should remember that “the chances of a child dying from Omicron are very, very, very, very low,” she said.

    According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 0.1% of Covid-19 deaths in the US have been in children under the age of 12.

    “I don’t think there’s any need to panic, seeing what we’ve seen from this study,” Hoyen says.

    But it is an indication that even though “we’re all in the middle of a big sigh of relief here, at least in the United States, it’s not over,” she said. “We do have large groups of vulnerable population still out there.

    “For parents of smaller children, they may need to take more precautions than other families,” Hoyen said.

    Thielen agrees. The best way for families to protect babies and young children is to make sure everyone around them is up to date on their vaccinations, including boosters, she said.

    She noted that the shots were particularly beneficial for people who are pregnant because antibodies from the vaccines protect both the person carrying the child and the baby for a period of time after birth.

    Breastfeeding is also protective because antibodies pass to infants through breast milk.

    And Thielen says high-quality masks on all family members who can wear them are also a good idea.

    Biden speech today: President wants Russia removed from G20, hopes to visit refugees in Poland

    Peter Watson
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    Biden speech today: President wants Russia removed from G20, hopes to visit refugees in Poland

    Biden says Ukraine should attend G20 meetings if efforts to expel Russia unsuccessful

    President Joe Biden wants Russia removed from the G20, but stressed that it is the organisation’s decision adding that an alternative would be for Ukraine to attend as an observer.

    Mr Biden was speaking at a press conference at Nato Headquarters following meetings with leaders of both the alliance and the G7 in an extraordinary day of summits in Brussels over the invasion of Ukraine.

    The president also said that he warned China not to help Russia or risk its economy; there would be an appropriate response to the use of chemical weapons; and that he will likely be visiting refugees at the Polish border tomorrow.

    Mr Biden is now meeting with the European Council in a day focussed on allied unity.

    Thursday’s meetings are to coordinate with Nato allies on military assistance for Ukraine, new sanctions on Russia, and the boosting of defences in Eastern Europe. The US has also now officially accused Russian forces of war crimes in Ukraine.

    The US also announced it will welcome 100,000 refugees displaced by the Russian invasion — one of the country’s biggest refugee intakes in years.

    At home, the latest polling shows the majority of Americans want the president to take a tougher stance on Russia, while his approval rating remains unchanged since the beginning of the conflict in Europe.

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    Oliver O’Connell25 March 2022 03:15

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    Court hears Michigan governor kidnapping sought to ‘ignite’ civil war and stop Biden election

    A man who pleaded guilty to participating in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer told a courtroom that his alleged co-conspirators sought to “ignite” a civil war and disrupt the 2020 presidential election before they were targeted in a stunning FBI sting.

    Star witness Ty Garbin, who described building a mock set of the governor’s home to practise how they would plan to break in, said the group “wanted to cause as much a disruption as possible to prevent Joe Biden from getting into office.”

    Oliver O’Connell25 March 2022 02:45

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    Oliver O’Connell25 March 2022 02:15

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    Americans applying for jobless aid is lowest since 1969

    The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in 52 years as the U.S. job market continues to show strength in the midst of rising costs and ongoing virus pandemic.

    Jobless claims fell by 28,000 to 187,000 for the week ending March 19, the lowest since September of 1969, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs.

    The White House has released a statement from President Joe Biden regarding today’s encouraging unemployment insurance claims.

    Americans are getting back to work at a historic pace, with fewer Americans on unemployment insurance today than at any time in the last half century. This morning, we received news that the number of Americans on unemployment insurance fell to its lowest level since 1970 and the number of Americans filing new claims fell to its lowest one-week level since 1969.

    This historic progress is no accident: it’s the result of an economic strategy to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, starting with the American Rescue Plan. And, it’s the result of effective management of emergency pandemic resources that resulted in 75% of adult Americans vaccinated and 99% of schools re-opened.

    We have more work to do to cut costs for families, but today’s data are a reminder that the US economy is uniquely well positioned to deal with the global challenge of inflation. We will continue the fight to lower costs with every tool at our disposal, from making more here in America and rebuilding our supply chains, to lowering costs that have held back Americans for decades, to promoting competition to ensure markets can operate effectively and consumers are protected.

    Oliver O’Connell25 March 2022 01:45

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    White House forms team to plan for possible use of chemical, biological, nuclear weapons by Russia

    A senior administration official has confirmed reporting by The New York Times that the White House has set up a team of national security officials to plan for what happens if Russia uses chemical, biological, or tactical nuclear weapons in its war on Ukraine.

    The US and allies are concerned the Kremlin might resort to such a move as its invasion struggles against Ukrainian resistance and Moscow’s own issues. The Biden administration has been warning of such a possibility since the early days of the war — perhaps as a false flag operation.

    White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan sent a memo on 28 February detailing how the “Tiger Team” would examine what might happen over the next three months of conflict, NBC News reports a senior administration official as saying.

    The team is looking at scenarios including: Russia using chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons; Russia targeting allied convoys carrying weapons to Ukraine; the implications of a disruption to the global food supply; and the growing refugee crisis as millions of Ukrainians flee the country, the official said.

    Mr Sullivan’s memo also established a second “strategy group” responsible for looking at the longer-term major geo-political shifts that have been triggered by the invasion.

    The use of such lethal weapons of mass destruction would dramatically escalate the conflict. Russia has already increasingly attacked civilians.

    Given the possibility that the impact of these types of weapons might spill into Nato countries, the alliance would have to consider whether it would respond.

    Oliver O’Connell25 March 2022 01:00

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    Biden calls for Russia to be removed from G20

    Oliver O’Connell25 March 2022 00:15

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    GOP official refuses to say Biden was ‘duly elected’

    A Democrat on the committee pressed the attorney general of Alabama, a vocal supporter of the former president’s falsehoods about the 2020 election, on Thursday whether Mr Biden was the “duly elected” president; the Republican official, Steve Marshall, repeatedly dodged his questions until the senator moved on.

    John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

    Oliver O’Connell24 March 2022 23:45

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    Joint Readout by US and European Council

    Today, the European Council was joined by President Joseph R Biden, Jr of the United States. The leaders discussed the coordinated and united response of the European Union and the United States to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression in Ukraine. They reviewed their ongoing efforts to impose economic costs on Russia and Belarus, as well as their readiness to adopt additional measures and to stop any attempts to circumvent sanctions.

    Leaders discussed the urgent needs caused by Russia’s aggression, committed to continuing providing humanitarian assistance, including to neighboring countries hosting refugees, and underscored the need for Russia to guarantee humanitarian access to those affected by or fleeing the violence.

    Leaders welcomed the opening of international investigations, including by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and ongoing efforts to gather evidence of atrocities.

    In addition, leaders discussed EU-US cooperation to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels, accelerate the transition to clean energy, as well as the need to respond to evolving food security needs worldwide.

    The leaders also concurred on the importance of strengthening democratic resilience in Ukraine, Moldova, and the wider Eastern partnership region.

    Finally, leaders underscored the importance of enhancing transatlantic security and defense, including through robust Nato-EU cooperation as described in the EU’s Strategic Compass.

    Oliver O’Connell24 March 2022 23:20

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    Possibility of return of Trump ‘concerns our allies’ says ambassador

    Marie Yovanovitch, a key witness during Mr Trump’s first impeachment trial, was speaking to former Obama adviser David Axelrod on the Axe Files podcast.

    Mr Axelrod said Mr Trump was “emboldened by his acquittal” after Democrats launched the impeachment process following revelations that Mr Trump had tried to withhold military aid to Ukraine to get them to investigate President Joe Biden and his family. Mr Biden was a potential presidential candidate at the time.

    Gustaf Kilander has the story.

    Oliver O’Connell24 March 2022 23:00

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    Biden: Ukraine should be able to attend G20 meetings if US efforts to expel Russia are unsuccessful

    President Joe Biden has called for Ukraine to be welcomed at future G20 summits should US attempts to expel Russia be unsuccessful.

    After meeting with European allies on Thursday in Brussels, Mr Biden told a press conference it was time to step up efforts to isolate Russia from the international community.

    He said if G20 member countries blocked his request to remove Russia, then Ukraine should be invited to attend the meetings.

    Oliver O’Connell24 March 2022 22:35

    Everything Announced at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2022

    Peter Watson
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    Everything Announced at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2022

     The Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2022 took place on March 24th, 2022, providing updates, release dates and reveals for a number of exciting upcoming games. If you weren’t able to catch the show as it was broadcast live across GamesRadar’s social channels, then this article is for you. We’ve put together a list of all of the major reveals from the Spring Showcase, which was presented by Ashly Burch and John MacMillan, the performers behind Aloy and Varl from the Horizon series. 

    The Time I Have Left

    The Spring Showcase kicked off with the reveal of The Time I Have Left, a mysterious time-driven escape adventure caked in neon and bustling with spooky monsters. The Time I Have Left is coming in 2023.

    Gun Jam

    Mars Astronauts Could Use Lettuce to Battle One of Space’s Great Threats

    Peter Watson
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    Mars Astronauts Could Use Lettuce to Battle One of Space’s Great Threats

    A special kind of lettuce could help anyone headed to Mars stay healthy.


    Sciepro/Science Photo Library

    The year 2030 might be when humans finally take their first steps on Mars — per NASA’s timeline, that is. Elon Musk’s recent estimate falls one year earlier, in 2029. 

    Regardless of when it happens, we know one thing for sure: Mars-bound astronauts will have a long journey through space ahead of them, subjected to microgravity for months. Those conditions will put the pioneers at risk of extensive bone loss. But there may be a tasty, crunchy and healthy solution.

    On Tuesday, at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society, scientists presented their blueprint for a new transgenic lettuce. It’s similar to the salad ingredient we know and love, but genetically engineered to prevent bone loss — and it can be grown right in outer space. Eating the plant would be like collecting a video game power-up that protects against the threats of microgravity.

    “It’s a very simple and cost-effective way to make a therapeutic,” Karen McDonald, a chemist at the University of California, Davis and one of the researchers behind the plant, said in a Tuesday media briefing.

    22-006-space-lettuce

    This lettuce produces a bone-stimulating hormone that could help mitigate bone loss in space and on Earth.


    Kevin Yates

    On Earth, our body maintains a balance between breaking down minerals in our bones and repairing things to make sure we’re always getting the nutrients we need. In microgravity, though, this equation loses its harmony. Bone mineral breakdown still happens, but subsequent repairs can’t keep up, which leads to loss of overall bone density.

    To counteract such bone loss in space, astronauts often exercise on their spacecraft. The International Space Station, for instance, has a bicycle, treadmill and special weightlifting device. But in the new study, researchers note that there hasn’t been enough evidence to support that exercise is sufficient to stave off bone density reduction. 

    That’s why space explorers also carry syringes of medication that have what’s called a human parathyroid hormone, or PTH, in the mix. Basically, PTH helps stimulate bone formation — but this therapy has its own downsides. It requires you to take injections every single day, which isn’t ideal. With the team’s new lettuce concoction, on the other hand, each day “an astronaut would need to eat about eight cups of lettuce in order to get the proper dose,” Kevin Yates, who’s also a chemist at the University of California, Davis, said in the media briefing.

    Running on a treadmill

    Astronaut Steven Hawley runs on a treadmill on the middeck of the space shuttle Columbia. The exercise is part of an experiment to evaluate the Treadmill Vibration Isolation System as planned hardware for the International Space Station.


    NASA

    Preparing lettuce for space travel

    “We decided to use lettuce because lettuce is a plant that’s been grown on the International Space Station,” McDonald said. “It’s also a plant that’s very productive in terms of producing seeds, so our idea is that if we created a transgenic plant, one seed can generate thousands of seeds.”

    And unlike standard astronaut medication, the team’s transgenic lettuce is synthetically engineered to have a gene that correlates with a slight variation of PTH. This variation is a combination of PTH and a protein known as — prepare for a mouthful — the fragment crystallizable domain of a human antibody. In many different ways, Fc helps PTH thrive in the human body. 

    462887main_iss022e097231.jpg

    Mizuna lettuce growing aboard the ISS before being harvested and frozen for return to Earth.


    NASA

    Once the team had their synthetic gene ready to go, they used a common gene encoding method to transfer it into the genome of regular lettuce, they explained, then grew lettuce plants from the seeds of the first lettuce, harvested seeds from those plants, and the story goes on. Plus, to make sure PTH-Fc successfully entered the plants, they can take out proteins from the growing lettuce and analyze them.

    “I don’t think we’ll be able to do deep space exploration with a crew of humans without this sort of technology,” Yates said. “It’s not just the lettuce on its own, it’s part of a broader way of thinking where we try to use every resource that we have available to us, whether it’s on spacecraft or the moon or Mars.”

    And aside from space exploration, the researchers emphasize that their invention can be given to anyone predisposed to bone loss. “We need ways to produce therapeutics in a simple fashion, and also in a lower-cost manner, and I think the use of plants to make therapeutics, such as PTH-Fc, would be very valuable here on Earth,” Yates said.

    Before we get to that point, though, the team emphasizes that they must first conduct lots of other tests, such as animal studies, clinical trials, drug optimization and even seeing how the plant fares in a space-like environment. In fact, it hasn’t yet been tasted by humans because of those clinical science hurdles.

    Still, Yates says, “I hope that it is every bit as delicious as regular lettuce and that it will be a good break from powdered and dehydrated food that long-duration space travelers might otherwise be eating, most of the time.”

    Trump sues Hillary Clinton, DNC and others, alleging conspiracy to link his campaign to Russia

    Peter Watson
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    0
    Trump sues Hillary Clinton, DNC and others, alleging conspiracy to link his campaign to Russia
    The lawsuit names a wide cast of characters that Trump has accused for years of orchestrating a “deep state” conspiracy against him — including former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials, the retired British spy Christopher Steele and his associates, and a handful of Clinton campaign advisers.

    “Under the guise of ‘opposition research,’ ‘data analytics,’ and other political stratagems, the Defendants nefariously sought to sway the public’s trust,” says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida. “They worked together with a single, self-serving purpose: to vilify Donald J. Trump.”

    Over 108 pages, the lawsuit rails against many of Trump’s political opponents and highlights the grievances that he has complained about for years. It claims Democrats and government officials perpetrated a grab bag of offenses, from a racketeering conspiracy to a malicious prosecution, computer fraud and theft of secret internet data. The lawsuit asks for more than $24 million in costs and damages.

    The suit also contains some factual inaccuracies and some of the same grandiose or exaggerated false claims that Trump has made dozens of times.

    The civil suit alleges that Clinton and top Democrats hired lawyers and researchers to fabricate information tying Trump to Russia, and then peddled those lies to the media and to the US government, in hopes of hobbling his chances of winning in 2016. Trump claims they were assisted by “Clinton loyalists” at the FBI, who abused their powers to investigate him out of political animus.

    John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s 2016 campaign and one of the lawsuit’s defendants, tweeted that part of the suit might be a “hoot.”

    “Do you think Trump filed this case with the hope of calling Vladimir Putin as a character witness? Trump deposition ought to be a hoot,” Podesta wrote.

    CNN has reached out to many of the defendants for comment. Some attorneys for defendants named in the lawsuit were still digesting it on Thursday.

    “We haven’t had a chance to read the complaint, but knowing the former President, there’s probably very little in there that’s true,” said Aitan Goelman, who represents former FBI official Peter Strzok.

    The Clinton campaign did pay researchers to dig up dirt about Trump and Russia, and well-connected Democrats took some of their findings to law enforcement, believing possible ties between Trump and Russia were worth investigating But many of the key elements of Trump’s far-reaching accusations in the lawsuit have previously been debunked by the Justice Department inspector general and by a bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee.

    Special counsel John Durham, for the past three years, has been investigating a lot of the conduct that Trump mentions in his lawsuit. Durham has not gone as far as what Trump claims.

    Durham has filed criminal charges against three of the defendants whom Trump sued on Thursday. Durham secured a guilty plea from former low-level FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted to altering an email supporting a surveillance warrant against a former Trump campaign aide who had extensive connections to Russian agents.
    Durham also accused Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI about who he was representing during a fall 2016 meeting about the Trump-Russia connections. Durham alleges Sussmann was secretly taking suspicions about Trump to the FBI as part of his work for Democrats, including Clinton. And Durham also charged Steele’s primary source of information for his infamous dossier, Igor Danchenko, with lying to the FBI in 2017 about his contacts related to the dossier. Both Sussmann and Danchenko are fighting the charges.
    Trump’s lawsuit claims that Clinton and the other defendants conspired to trigger an “unfounded investigation” by the FBI into potential Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election. Multiple federal judges upheld the legality of that investigation, which was later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller and uncovered dozens of connections between Trump associates and Russian officials.

    The investigation established that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump win, through a hack-and-leak operation against Clinton, and with a sophisticated disinformation campaign targeting US voters on social media. The probe also found that Trump’s campaign sought to capitalize on Russia’s interference, though it did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump aides and any Russians.

    Some legal experts quickly weighed in on Trump’s lawsuit Thursday, dismissing it as a meritless political stunt.

    Carter Page, a former Trump presidential campaign adviser, also sued some of same people Trump named as defendants on Thursday, but his lawsuit is more narrowly focused around having his privacy rights violated when he was surveilled by the FBI in the Russia investigation.

    This story has been updated with additional details.

    CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

    E.U. Takes Aim at Big Tech’s Power With Landmark Digital Act

    Peter Watson
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    E.U. Takes Aim at Big Tech’s Power With Landmark Digital Act

    GÖTTINGEN, Germany — The European Union agreed on Thursday to one of the world’s most far-reaching laws to address the power of the biggest tech companies, potentially reshaping app stores, online advertising, e-commerce, messaging services and other everyday digital tools.

    The law, called the Digital Markets Act, is the most sweeping piece of digital policy since the bloc put the world’s toughest rules to protect people’s online data into effect in 2018. The legislation is aimed at stopping the largest tech platforms from using their interlocking services and considerable resources to box in users and squash emerging rivals, creating room for new entrants and fostering more competition.

    What that means practically is that companies like Google will no longer be able to collect data from different services to offer targeted ads without users’ consent and that Apple may have to allow alternatives to its App Store on iPhones and iPads. Violators of the law, which will take effect as early as later this year, could face penalties of up to 20 percent of their global revenue — which could reach into the tens of billions of dollars — for repeat offenses.

    The Digital Markets Act is part of a one-two punch by European regulators. As early as next month, the European Union is expected to reach an agreement on a law that would force social media companies such as Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to police their platforms more aggressively.

    With these actions, Europe is cementing its leadership as the most assertive regulator of tech companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft. European standards are often adopted worldwide, and the latest legislation further raises the bar by potentially bringing the companies under a new era of oversight — just like health care, transportation and banking industries.

    “Faced with big online platforms behaving like they were ‘too big to care,’ Europe has put its foot down,” said Thierry Breton, one of the top digital officials in the European Commission. “We are putting an end to the so-called Wild West dominating our information space. A new framework that can become a reference for democracies worldwide.”

    On Thursday, representatives from the European Parliament and European Council hammered out the last specifics of the law in Brussels. The agreement followed about 16 months of talks — a speedy pace for the E.U. bureaucracy — and sets the stage for a final vote in Parliament and among representatives from the 27 countries in the union. That approval is viewed as a formality.

    Europe’s moves contrast with the lack of activity in the United States. While Republicans and Democrats have held several high-profile congressional hearings to scrutinize Meta, Twitter and others in recent years, and U.S. regulators have filed antitrust cases against Google and Meta, no new federal laws have been passed to address what many see as the tech companies’ unchecked power.

    Europe’s new rules could offer a preview of what’s to come elsewhere in the world. The region’s online privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, which restricts the online collection and sharing of personal data, has served as a model in countries from Japan to Brazil.

    The path of the Digital Markets Act faced hurdles. Policymakers dealt with what watchdogs said was one of the fiercest lobbying efforts ever seen in Brussels as industry groups tried to water down the new law. They also brushed aside concerns raised by the Biden administration that the rules unfairly targeted American companies.

    Questions remain about how the new law will work in practice. Companies are expected to look for ways to diminish its impact through the courts. And regulators will need new funding to pay for their expanded oversight responsibilities, when budgets are under strain from the pandemic.

    “The pressure will be intense to show results, and fast,” said Thomas Vinje, a veteran antitrust lawyer in Brussels who has represented Amazon, Microsoft and Spotify.

    Tech industry groups criticized the new law as biased against American companies and predicted it would harm innovation in Europe.

    “This bill was written to target U.S. tech companies, and its impact will fall on American workers,” said Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of the Chamber of Progress, a trade group in Washington. “European regulations that single out our tech sector threaten American jobs — not just in Silicon Valley, but in cities from Pittsburgh to Birmingham.”

    The Digital Markets Act will apply to so-called gatekeeper platforms, which are defined by factors including a market value of more than 75 billion euros, or about $83 billion. The group includes Alphabet, the owner of Google and YouTube; Amazon; Apple; Microsoft; and Meta.

    Specifics of the law read like a wish list for rivals of the biggest companies.

    Apple and Google, which make the operating systems that run on nearly every smartphone, would be required to loosen their grip. Apple will have to allow alternatives to its App Store for downloading apps, a change the company has warned could harm security. The law will also let companies such as Spotify and Epic Games use payment methods other than Apple’s in the App Store, which charges a 30 percent commission.

    Amazon will be barred from using data collected from outside sellers on its services so that it could offer competing products, a practice that is the subject of a separate E.U. antitrust investigation.

    The law will result in major changes for messaging apps. WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, could be required to offer a way for users of rival services like Signal or Telegram to send and receive messages to somebody using WhatsApp. Those rival services would have the option to make their products interoperable with WhatsApp.

    The largest sellers of online advertising, Meta and Google, will see new limits for offering targeted ads without consent. Such ads — based on data collected from people as they move between YouTube and Google Search, or Instagram and Facebook — are immensely lucrative for both companies.

    “Large gatekeeper platforms have prevented businesses and consumers from the benefits of competitive digital markets,” said Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission overseeing digital and competition policy, in a statement. The companies, she said, will now “have to comply with a well-defined set of obligations and prohibitions.”

    Meta, Microsoft and Amazon declined to comment. Google and Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

    Anu Bradford, a Columbia University law professor who coined the term “Brussels Effect” about the influence of E.U. law, said European rules often became global standards because it was easier for companies to apply them across their entire organization rather than one geography.

    “Everyone is watching the D.M.A., be it the leading tech companies, their rivals or foreign governments,” Ms. Bradford said, referring to the Digital Markets Act. “It is possible that even the U.S. Congress will now conclude that they are done watching from the sidelines when the E.U. regulates U.S. tech companies and will move from talking about legislative reform to actually legislating.”

    President Biden has appointed Lina Khan, a prominent Amazon critic, to lead the Federal Trade Commission and a lawyer critical of the tech giants, Jonathan Kanter, to head the antitrust division of the Department of Justice.

    But efforts to change American antitrust laws have moved slowly. Congressional committees have endorsed bills that would stop tech platforms from favoring their own products or buying smaller companies. It is unclear whether the measures have enough support to pass the full House and Senate.

    European regulators are now faced with enforcing the new law. G.D.P.R. has been criticized for lack of enforcement.

    The European Commission, the executive branch of the bloc, will also have to hire scores of new employees to investigate the tech companies. Years of litigation are expected as companies mount court challenges of future penalties issued as a result of the new law.

    “The gatekeepers,” said Mr. Vinje, the Brussels antitrust lawyer, “will not be entirely without defenses.”

    David McCabe contributed reporting from Washington.

    Another El Paso County open space debuting soon | Lifestyle

    Peter Watson
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    Another El Paso County open space debuting soon | Lifestyle

    Hikers, cyclists and equestrians enjoying El Paso County’s newly unveiled open space this week, Kane Ranch, won’t have to wait long to enjoy another.

    Officials on Thursday announced an April 7 ribbon-cutting for Santa Fe Open Space near Palmer Lake, near the county’s northern boundaries. Kane Ranch’s 3½-mile loop trail recently opened on the county’s southeast side near Fountain.


    New open space near Colorado Springs set for long-awaited debut

    “With El Paso County’s growing community and their growing interest in spending time outdoors, this new open space allows us to engage in more of El Paso County’s landscape and enjoy all our parks system has to offer,” Todd Marts, the county’s community services executive director, said in Thursday’s news release. 

    A single-track circuit covering 1.75 miles has been built in Santa Fe Open Space’s modest 60 acres. That’s compared with Kane Ranch’s 495 acres of windswept prairie, deeded to the public by the late proprietor. 


    Big challenge, thrill promised by new trail in Royal Gorge region

    Santa Fe’s aesthetics are much different — like a slice of backcountry, as county park planner Ross Williams previously described it to The Gazette. 

    The trail meanders through oak, pine and meadows in the hills just off the New Santa Fe Regional Trail, under the gaze of Ben Lomand Mountain and aptly-named Elephant Rock. Palmer Lake’s rolling backdrop provide more views, along with Monument’s Mount Herman and, to the east, Black Forest’s recognizable tree line. 

    “On top of that, it’s flooded with sunshine,” Williams said. “It’s south-facing, and it gets so much sunshine. So I think it’s really gonna offer that year-round hiking experience.”

    The county bought the land in 2017 for $340,000, seeing it as a way for New Santa Fe Regional Trail users “to experience a more natural foothills environment in close vicinity to urbanized areas and major trailheads,” according to the news release. 

    The open space is reached a half-mile up that regional trail from Palmer Lake Recreation Area in the heart of town. Or one could travel 2½ miles on the trail from the parking lot along Colorado 105, closer to Monument.

    The April 7 ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the western entrance near Palmer Lake.


    Vail Resorts announces new Epic Pass prices for 2022-2023 season — up after major discount

    New Baltimore Ravens president Sashi Brown says team will continue to be ‘model’ in diversity

    Peter Watson
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    New Baltimore Ravens president Sashi Brown says team will continue to be ‘model’ in diversity

    OWINGS MILLS, Md. — In becoming the second Black team president in the NFL, Sashi Brown said he wants the Baltimore Ravens to remain leaders in providing opportunities to minorities.

    “I think this is something that, we as a league [and] we as an organization need to be committed to regardless of your background, color or gender,” Brown said Thursday at his introductory news conference. “We will do better. It’s going to be a commitment. I know it’s important to Steve [Bisciotti, Ravens owner]. I know it’s important to Dick [Cass, outgoing Ravens president]. I think that’s why Baltimore has been a model on this topic, and we will continue to be under my leadership.”

    Brown, 45, will officially take over for the retiring Cass on April 1. He joins the Washington Commanders‘ Jason Wright as the only Black team presidents in the NFL.

    During his 30-minute media session, Brown cited the Ravens’ history for promoting diversity in the organization. Ozzie Newsome became the NFL’s first Black general manager in 2002, holding that position for 17 years.

    Brown acknowledged that opportunity for minorities in the NFL is “a big, complicated topic.” Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a potential class-action lawsuit against the league and three teams last month alleging discrimination in his interviews and his firing in Miami.

    Although Brown is hopeful his hiring can lead to more opportunities for minorities in the NFL, he doesn’t want progress to be contingent on the success of one individual.

    “The first thing I would say, we just shouldn’t, here in 2022, being only the second African American [NFL team president],” Brown said. “We need to do better. Wall Street needs to do better, and the NFL is no different.”

    Brown worked the past two years for Monumental Sports and the NBA’s Washington Wizards after spending 12 years in the NFL. From 2013 to 2017, Brown served as executive vice president of football operations for the Cleveland Browns.

    On Thursday, Brown did not want to rehash his time with the Browns, who struggled to a 1-27 record with him in charge of personnel.

    “Enough’s been written about Cleveland and my days there,” Brown said. “I’ve certainly turned the page, and it’s plenty time that we move on from that.”

    Cass, 76, told Bisciotti last September that the 2021 season would be his last and then spearheaded a search for his successor. He gave a list of seven candidates to Bisciotti, who quickly zeroed in on Brown’s résumé and experience.

    Brown becomes the third team president in the history of the Ravens, who have won two Super Bowl titles and 233 games in 26 seasons.

    “The sustained success is really the focus here,” Brown said. “That … calling card of the Ravens will continue to be our focus as I come in as president.”

    COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations Among Adults During SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron Variant Predominance, by Race/Ethnicity and Vaccination Status — COVID-NET, 14 States, July 2021–January 2022

    Peter Watson
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    COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations Among Adults During SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron Variant Predominance, by Race/Ethnicity and Vaccination Status — COVID-NET, 14 States, July 2021–January 2022

    On March 18, 2022, this report was posted online as an MMWR Early Release.

    Christopher A. Taylor, PhD1; Michael Whitaker, MPH1; Onika Anglin, MPH1,2; Jennifer Milucky, MSPH1; Kadam Patel, MPH1,2; Huong Pham, MPH1; Shua J. Chai, MD3,4; Nisha B. Alden, MPH5; Kimberly Yousey-Hindes, MPH6; Evan J. Anderson, MD7,8,9; Kenzie Teno, MPH10; Libby Reeg, MPH11; Kathryn Como-Sabetti, MPH12; Molly Bleecker, MA13; Grant Barney, MPH14; Nancy M. Bennett, MD15; Laurie M. Billing, MPH16; Melissa Sutton, MD17; H. Keipp Talbot, MD18; Keegan McCaffrey19; Fiona P. Havers, MD1; COVID-NET Surveillance Team (View author affiliations)

    View suggested citation

    Summary

    What is already known about this topic?

    SARS-CoV-2 infections can result in COVID-19–associated hospitalizations, even among vaccinated persons.

    What is added by this report?

    In January 2022, unvaccinated adults and those vaccinated with a primary series, but no booster or additional dose, were 12 and three times as likely to be hospitalized, respectively, as were adults who received booster or additional doses. Hospitalization rates among non-Hispanic Black adults increased more than rates in other racial/ethnic groups.

    What are the implications for public health practice?

    All adults should stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination to reduce their risk for COVID-19–associated hospitalization. Implementing strategies that result in the equitable receipt of COVID-19 vaccinations among persons with disproportionately higher hospitalizations rates, including non-Hispanic Black adults, is an urgent public health priority.

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    Beginning the week of December 19–25, 2021, the B.1.1.529 (Omicron) variant of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) became the predominant circulating variant in the United States (i.e., accounted for >50% of sequenced isolates).* Information on the impact that booster or additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines have on preventing hospitalizations during Omicron predominance is limited. Data from the COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET)† were analyzed to compare COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among adults aged ≥18 years during B.1.617.2 (Delta; July 1–December 18, 2021) and Omicron (December 19, 2021–January 31, 2022) variant predominance, overall and by race/ethnicity and vaccination status. During the Omicron-predominant period, weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates (hospitalizations per 100,000 adults) peaked at 38.4, compared with 15.5 during Delta predominance. Hospitalizations rates increased among all adults irrespective of vaccination status (unvaccinated, primary series only, or primary series plus a booster or additional dose). Hospitalization rates during peak Omicron circulation (January 2022) among unvaccinated adults remained 12 times the rates among vaccinated adults who received booster or additional doses and four times the rates among adults who received a primary series, but no booster or additional dose. The rate among adults who received a primary series, but no booster or additional dose, was three times the rate among adults who received a booster or additional dose. During the Omicron-predominant period, peak hospitalization rates among non-Hispanic Black (Black) adults were nearly four times the rate of non-Hispanic White (White) adults and was the highest rate observed among any racial and ethnic group during the pandemic. Compared with the Delta-predominant period, the proportion of unvaccinated hospitalized Black adults increased during the Omicron-predominant period. All adults should stay up to date (1) with COVID-19 vaccination to reduce their risk for COVID-19–associated hospitalization. Implementing strategies that result in the equitable receipt of COVID-19 vaccinations, through building vaccine confidence, raising awareness of the benefits of vaccination, and removing barriers to vaccination access among persons with disproportionately higher hospitalizations rates from COVID-19, including Black adults, is an urgent public health priority.

    COVID-NET conducts population-based surveillance for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19–associated hospitalizations in 99 counties across 14 states.§ COVID-19–associated hospitalizations are those occurring among residents of a predefined surveillance catchment area who have a positive real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or rapid antigen detection test result for SARS-CoV-2 during hospitalization or the 14 days preceding admission.

    This analysis describes weekly hospitalization rates during Delta- and Omicron-predominant periods. Among nonpregnant and pregnant adults aged ≥18 years, hospitalization rates were calculated overall, and by race/ethnicity and COVID-19 vaccination status. Age-adjusted rates were calculated by dividing the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients by population estimates for race/ethnicity, and vaccination status in the catchment area. Vaccination status (unvaccinated, receipt of a primary series only, or receipt of a primary series plus a booster or additional dose) was determined for individual hospitalized patients and for the catchment population using state immunization information systems data (2).** Monthly incidence among adults who received booster or additional doses was calculated by summing the total number of COVID-19 patients with booster or additional doses hospitalized over all days of the month and dividing by the sum of adults with booster or additional doses in the underlying population for each day of the month.†† This method was also used for calculations in unvaccinated persons and those who received a primary series but not a booster or additional dose.§§

    Using previously described methods (3), investigators collected clinical data on a representative sample of adult patients (7.9%) hospitalized during July 1, 2021–January 31, 2022, stratified by age and COVID-NET site. Surveillance officers abstracted data on sampled patients from medical charts. Pregnant women were excluded because their reasons for hospital admission (4) might differ from those for nonpregnant persons.

    Variances were estimated using Taylor series linearization method. Chi-square tests were used to compare differences between the Delta- and Omicron-predominant periods; p-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Percentages presented were weighted to account for the probability of selection for sampled cases (3). Analyses were conducted using SAS statistical software survey procedures (version 9.4; SAS Institute). This activity was reviewed by CDC and conducted consistent with applicable federal law and CDC policy.¶¶

    During the Omicron-predominant period, overall weekly adult hospitalization rates peaked at 38.4 per 100,000, exceeding the previous peak on January 9, 2021 (26.1) and the peak rate during the Delta-predominant period (15.5) (Figure 1). Age-adjusted hospitalization rates among Black adults peaked at 94.7 (January 8, 2022), higher than that among all other racial and ethnic groups, 3.8 times the rate among White adults (24.8) for the same week, and 2.5 times the previous peak (January 16, 2021) among Black adults (37.2). This was the highest age-adjusted weekly rate observed among any racial and ethnic group during the pandemic. During the Omicron-predominant period, hospitalization rates increased among unvaccinated persons and those who completed a primary series, with and without receipt of a booster or additional dose (Figure 2). Weekly rates among unvaccinated adults and adults who received a primary COVID-19 vaccination series with a booster or additional dose peaked at 149.8 (January 8, 2022) and 11.7 (January 22, 2022), respectively. The cumulative monthly age-adjusted hospitalization rate during January 2022 among unvaccinated adults (528.2) was 12 times the rates among those who had received a booster or additional dose (45.0) and four times the rates among adults who received a primary series, but no booster or additional dose (133.5). The rate among adults who received a primary series, but no booster or additional dose (133.5), was three times the rate among adults who received a booster or additional dose (45.0).

    Clinical information was abstracted for 5,681 adults with COVID-19–associated hospitalization during July 1, 2021–January 31, 2022 (Table). Black adults accounted for a higher percentage of hospitalizations during the Omicron-predominant period (26.7%) than during the Delta-predominant period (22.2%, p = 0.05). Among all adults, relative to the Delta-predominant period, COVID-19–related illness was the primary reason for admission for a smaller percentage of hospitalizations (87.5% versus 95.5%, p<0.01), and median length of stay was shorter (4 versus 5 days, p<0.01) during the Omicron-predominant period; during this period, the proportion of patients admitted to an intensive care unit, who received invasive mechanical ventilation, and who died in-hospital decreased significantly (all p<0.01).

    Among 829 adults hospitalized during the Omicron-predominant period, 49.4% were unvaccinated, compared with 69.5% during the Delta-predominant period (p<0.01). The proportion of hospitalized adults who received booster or additional doses increased from 1.3% during the Delta-predominant period to 13.4% during the Omicron-predominant period (p<0.01)***; among these, 10.7% were long-term care facility residents and 69.5% had an immunosuppressive condition.††† Black adults accounted for 25.2% of all unvaccinated persons hospitalized during the Delta-predominant period; that proportion increased by 23%, to 31.0% during the Omicron-predominant period. Relative to the Delta-predominant period, the proportion of cases in non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islanders also increased, whereas the proportion in all other racial and ethnic groups decreased. The proportion of hospitalized Black adults who received a primary COVID-19 vaccination series with or without a booster or additional dose increased from 4.7% and 14.9%, respectively, during the Delta-predominant period to 14.8% and 25.5%, respectively, during the Omicron-predominant period; Hispanic adults experienced smaller increases.

    Discussion

    During the period of Omicron predominance, hospitalization rates increased most sharply among Black adults in the United States relative to all other racial and ethnic groups examined and reached the highest rate observed among all racial and ethnic groups since the beginning of the pandemic. Relative to the Delta-predominant period, a larger proportion of hospitalized Black adults were unvaccinated. Although hospitalization rates increased for all adults, rates were highest among unvaccinated adults and lowest among adults who had received a primary series and a booster or additional dose. Hospitalization rates during peak Omicron circulation (January 2022) among unvaccinated adults remained 12 times the rates among vaccinated adults who received booster or additional doses and four times the rates among adults who received a primary series, but no booster or additional dose. The rate among adults who received a primary series, but no booster or additional dose, was three times the rate among adults who received a booster or additional dose. This is consistent with data showing the incidence of positive SARS-CoV-2 test results or death from COVID-19 is higher among unvaccinated adults and adults who have not received a booster than among those who have received a booster or additional dose (5).

    Relative to the Delta-predominant period, a significantly shorter median length of hospital stay was observed during the Omicron-predominant period and smaller proportions of hospitalizations with intensive care unit admission, receipt of invasive mechanical ventilation, or in-hospital death. Other studies found similarly decreased proportions of severe outcomes among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 during this period (6).§§§

    The prevalence of primary COVID-19 vaccination and of receipt of a booster dose were lower among Black adults compared with White adults. As of January 26, 2022, 39.6% of Black persons received a primary vaccine series; of those, 43.9% of adults received a booster dose once eligible. These proportions are lower compared with 47.3% of White persons who received a primary series and 54.5% of eligible adults who received a booster dose.¶¶¶ Relative to the Delta-predominant period, Black adults accounted for a larger proportion of unvaccinated adults during the Omicron-predominant period, and age-adjusted hospitalization rates for Black adults increased to the highest rate among all racial and ethnic groups for any week during the pandemic. A previous study conducted before the Omicron-predominant period that showed increased risk for COVID-19–associated hospitalization among certain racial and ethnic groups, including Black adults, and suggested the increased hospitalization rates were likely multifactorial and could include increased prevalence of underlying medical conditions, increased community-level exposure to and incidence of COVID-19, and poor access to health care in these groups (7). The increase in transmissibility of the Omicron variant might have amplified these risks for hospitalization, resulting in increased hospitalization rates among Black adults compared with White adults, irrespective of vaccination status. Taken together, these findings suggest that the increased risk for hospitalization among Black adults during the Omicron-predominant period might also be due, in part, to lower proportions of Black adults receiving both the primary vaccination series and booster doses.

    The findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First, COVID-19–associated hospitalizations might have been missed because of hospital testing practices and test availability. Second, vaccination status is subject to misclassification; this might affect estimation of rates by vaccination status. Third, because immunocompromise status is not always known, it is not possible to distinguish between booster and additional doses; this could have influenced observed rates. Finally, the COVID-NET catchment areas include approximately 10% of the U.S. population; thus, these findings might not be nationally generalizable.

    Coinciding with Omicron variant predominance, COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among adults increased in late December 2021 and peaked in January 2022; rates increased more among Black adults relative to rates among adults of other racial and ethnic groups. Rates were highest among unvaccinated adults and lowest among those who had received a booster or additional dose. All adults should stay up to date (1) with COVID-19 vaccination to reduce their risk for COVID-19–associated hospitalization. Implementing strategies that result in the equitable receipt of COVID-19 vaccinations, though building vaccine confidence, raising awareness of the benefits of vaccination, and removing barriers to vaccination access among persons with disproportionately higher hospitalizations rates from COVID-19, including Black adults, is an urgent public health priority.

    Acknowledgments

    Arthur Reingold, Jeremy Roland, Ashley Coates, California Emerging Infections Program, Oakland, California; Breanna Kawasaki, Rachel Herlihy, Isaac Armistead, Madelyn Lensing, Jordan Surgnier, Sarah McLafferty, Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment; Ann Basting, Tessa Carter, Maria Correa, Daewi Kim, Carol Lyons, Hazhia Sorosindi, Connecticut Emerging Infections Program, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut; Emily Fawcett, Katelyn Ward, Jana Manning, Asmith Joseph, Allison Roebling, Chandler Surell, Stephanie Lehman, Taylor Eisenstein, Suzanne Segler, Grayson Kallas, Marina Bruck, Rayna Ceaser, Annabel Patterson, Sabrina Hendrick, Johanna Hernandez, Hope Wilson, School of Medicine, Emory University, Georgia Emerging Infections Program, Georgia Department of Public Health, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Foundation for Atlanta Veterans Education and Research, Atlanta, Georgia; Jim Collins, Shannon Johnson, Justin Henderson, Sue Kim, Alexander Kohrman, Lauren Leegwater, Val Tellez Nunez, Sierra Peguies-Khan, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; Kayla Bilski, Kristen Ehresmann, Richard Danila, Jake Garfin, Grace Hernandez, Kieu My Phi, Ruth Lynfield, Sara Vetter, Xiong Wang, Minnesota Department of Health; Daniel M. Sosin, Susan L. Ropp, Sunshine Martinez, Jasmyn Sanchez, Cory Cline, Melissa Judson, Florent Nkouaga, Mark Montoya, New Mexico Department of Health; Sarah Lathrop, Kathy M. Angeles, Yadira Salazar-Sanchez, Sarah A. Khanlian, Nancy Eisenberg, Dominic Rudin, Sarah Shrum Davis, Mayvilynne Poblete, Emily B. Hancock, Francesca Pacheco, New Mexico Emerging Infections Program; Yassir Talha, Celina Chavez, Jennifer Akpo, Alesia Reed, Murtada Khalifa, CDC Foundation, New Mexico Department of Health; Suzanne McGuire, Kerianne Engesser, Nancy Spina, Adam Rowe, New York State Department of Health; Sophrena Bushey, Virginia Cafferky, Maria Gaitan, Christine Long, Thomas Peer, Kevin Popham, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York; Julie Freshwater, Denise Ingabire-Smith, Ann Salvator, Rebekah Sutter, Ohio Department of Health; Sam Hawkins, Public Health Division, Oregon Health Authority; Tiffanie Markus, Katie Dyer, Karen Leib, Terri McMinn, Danielle Ndi, Gail Hughett, Emmanuel Sackey, Kathy Billings, Anise Elie, Manideepthi Pemmaraju, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee; Amanda Carter, Andrea George, Andrew Haraghey, Ashley Swain, Caitlin Shaw, Laine McCullough, Mary Hill, Ryan Chatelain, Salt Lake County Health Department, Salt Lake City, Utah; Alvin Shultz, Robert W. Pinner, Rainy Henry, Sonja Mali Nti-Berko, CDC; Elizabeth Daly, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

    COVID-NET Surveillance Team

    Gretchen Rothrock, California Emerging Infections Program; Millen Tsegaye, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Julie Plano, Connecticut Emerging Infections Program, Yale School of Public Health; Kyle Openo, Georgia Emerging Infections Program, Georgia Department of Public Health Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, Emory University; Andy Weigel, Iowa Department of Health; Chloe Brown, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; Erica Bye, Minnesota Department of Health; Wickliffe Omondi, New Mexico Emerging Infections Program, University of New Mexico; Alison Muse, New York State Department of Health; Christina Felsen, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; Eli Shiltz, Ohio Department of Health; Nasreen Abdullah, Public Health Division, Oregon Health Authority; William Schaffner, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Melanie Crossland, Salt Lake County Health Department

    1CDC COVID-19 Emergency Response Team; 2General Dynamics Information Technology, Atlanta, Georgia; 3California Emerging Infections Program, Oakland, California; 4Career Epidemiology Field Officer Program, CDC; 5Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment; 6Connecticut Emerging Infections Program, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut; 7Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia; 8Georgia Emerging Infections Program, Georgia Department of Public Health; 9Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Atlanta, Georgia; 10Iowa Department of Public Health; 11Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; 12Minnesota Department of Health; 13New Mexico Emerging Infections Program, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; 14New York State Department of Health; 15University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York; 16Ohio Department of Health; 17Public Health Division, Oregon Health Authority; 18Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee; 19Utah Department of Health.

    References

    1. CDC. Stay up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2022. Accessed March 10, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html
    2. Moline HL, Whitaker M, Deng L, et al. Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing hospitalization among adults aged ≥65 years—COVID-NET, 13 states, February–April 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:1088–93. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7032e3external icon PMID:34383730external icon
    3. Garg S, Patel K, Pham H, et al. Clinical trends among U.S. adults hospitalized with COVID-19, March to December 2020: a cross-sectional study. Ann Intern Med 2021;174:1409–19. https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-1991external icon PMID:34370517external icon
    4. Delahoy MJ, Whitaker M, O’Halloran A, et al.; COVID-NET Surveillance Team. Characteristics and maternal and birth outcomes of hospitalized pregnant women with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19—COVID-NET, 13 states, March 1–August 22, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:1347–54. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6938e1external icon PMID:32970655external icon
    5. Johnson AG, Amin AB, Ali AR, et al. COVID-19 incidence and death rates among unvaccinated and fully vaccinated adults with and without booster doses during periods of Delta and Omicron variant emergence—25 U.S. Jurisdictions, April 4–December 25, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:132–8. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7104e2external icon PMID:35085223external icon
    6. Iuliano AD, Brunkard JM, Boehmer TK, et al. Trends in disease severity and health care utilization during the early Omicron variant period compared with previous SARS-CoV-2 high transmission periods—United States, December 2020–January 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:146–52. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7104e4external icon PMID:35085225external icon
    7. Acosta AM, Garg S, Pham H, et al. Racial and ethnic disparities in rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, and in-hospital death in the United States from March 2020 to February 2021. JAMA Netw Open 2021;4:e2130479. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.30479external icon PMID:34673962external icon
    Return to your place in the textFIGURE 1. Weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates* among adults aged ≥18 years, by race and ethnicity — COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, 14 states,† March 2020–January 2022
    The figure is an epidemiologic curve showing the weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among adults aged ≥18 years, using data from the COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, in 14 states, during March 2020–January 2022.

    * Overall rates are unadjusted; rates presented by racial and ethnic group are age-adjusted.

    † Selected counties in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm). Starting the week ending December 4, 2021, Maryland data are not included in weekly rate calculations but are included in previous weeks.

    Return to your place in the textFIGURE 2. Weekly age-adjusted rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations among adults aged ≥18 years, by vaccination status* — COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, 13 states,† September 4, 2021–January 29, 2022§
    The figure is an epidemiologic curve showing weekly age-adjusted rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations among adults aged ≥18 years, by vaccination status, using data from the COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, in 13 states, during September 4, 2021–January 29, 2022.

    Abbreviation: COVID-NET = COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network.

    * Adults who completed a primary vaccination series were defined as those who had received the second dose of a 2-dose primary vaccination series or a single dose of a 1-dose product ≥14 days before a positive SARS-CoV-2 test associated with their hospitalization but received no booster dose. Adults who received booster doses were classified as those who completed the primary series and received an additional or booster dose on or after August 13, 2021, at any time after completion of the primary series, and ≥14 days before a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2, because COVID-19–associated hospitalizations are a lagging indicator and time passed after receipt of a booster dose has been shown to be associated with reduced rates of COVID-19 infection (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2114255external icon). Adults with no documented receipt of any COVID-19 vaccine dose before the test date were considered unvaccinated.

    † Selected counties in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm). Iowa does not provide data on vaccination status.

    § Starting the week ending December 4, 2021, Maryland data are not included in weekly rate calculations but are included in previous weeks. To ensure stability and reliability of rates by vaccination status, data are presented beginning when 14 days have passed since at least 5% of the population of adults aged ≥18 years in the COVID-NET surveillance catchment area had received an additional or booster dose.

    TABLE. Demographic characteristics and clinical interventions and outcomes in COVID-19–associated hospitalizations among nonpregnant adults aged ≥18 years (N = 5,681),* by vaccination status† and period of SARS-CoV-2 variant predominance§ — COVID-NET, 14 states, July 2021–January 2022Return to your place in the text
    Characteristic Variant predominance period, no. (%)
    Total hospitalizations** Vaccination status
    Unvaccinated Primary series, no booster Primary series, plus booster
    Delta (Jul 1–Dec 18) Omicron (Dec 19–Jan 31) p-value†† Delta (Jul 1–Dec 18) Omicron (Dec 19–Jan 31) Delta (Jul 1–Dec 18) Omicron (Dec 19–Jan 31) Delta (Jul 1–Dec 18) Omicron (Dec 19–Jan 31)
    Overall§§ 4,852 (64.1) 829 (35.9) — 3,269 (71.8) 409 (28.2) 1,183 (58.0) 255 (42.0) 45 (15.3) 93 (84.7)
    Median age, yrs, (IQR) 60 (47–72) 64 (49–77) <0.01 56 (43–67) 60 (46–77) 71 (61–80) 66 (52–78) 75 (69–82) 69 (59–79)
    Age group, yrs
    18–49 1,419 (28.7) 251 (25.6) 0.01 1,185 (36.6) 141 (30.3) 140 (10.1) 71 (21.1) 2 (1.3) 13 (13.2)
    50–64 1,723 (30.4) 265 (26.6) 1,274 (33.7) 142 (28.8) 310 (21.2) 77 (26.3) 7 (9.5) 23 (21.1)
    ≥65 1,710 (40.9) 313 (47.9) 810 (29.7) 126 (40.9) 733 (68.6) 107 (52.5) 36 (89.2) 57 (65.7)
    Sex
    Men 2,574 (52.7) 435 (52.2) 0.83 1,751 (52.7) 225 (51.5) 610 (53.2) 127 (50.8) 21 (38.4) 50 (60.8)
    Women 2,278 (47.3) 394 (47.8) 1,518 (47.3) 184 (48.5) 573 (46.8) 128 (49.2) 24 (61.6) 43 (39.2)
    Race/Ethnicity¶¶
    White, non-Hispanic 2,917 (54.4) 474 (47.6) 0.05 1,852 (50.2) 222 (40.7) 817 (63.1) 137 (46.4) 41 (87.9) 71 (70.8)
    Black, non-Hispanic 943 (22.2) 185 (26.7) 687 (25.2) 98 (31.0) 169 (14.9) 60 (25.5) 3 (4.7) 11 (14.8)
    American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic 63 (1.5) 8 (1.0) 46 (1.5) 5 (1.5) 15 (1.9) 3 (1.0) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0)
    Asian or Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic 133 (3.6) 19 (4.6) 88 (3.4) 9 (5.4) 36 (4.6) 7 (11.8) 0 (0.0) 3 (5.9)
    Hispanic 589 (12.3) 43 (8.2) 447 (13.7) 52 (12.9) 101 (9.3) 33 (11.2) 1 (7.4) 6 (7.9)
    LTCF residence*** 264 (5.6) 53 (7.2) 0.18 76 (2.8) 14 (4.3) 155 (12.4) 24 (9.3) 9 (18.4) 11 (10.7)
    Any underlying medical condition††† 4,195 (88.5) 729 (91.0) 0.18 2,705 (85.1) 337 (87.7) 1,126 (96.8) 242 (96.3) 44 (99.1) 84 (89.6)
    Immunosuppressive condition§§§ 505 (11.0) 132 (16.9) <0.01 240 (7.7) 45 (10.4) 215 (18.6) 50 (21.7) 18 (44.7) 26 (69.5)
    Reason for admission
    Likely COVID-19–related 4,487 (95.5) 712 (87.5) <0.01 3,046 (96.3) 356 (89.5) 1,069 (93.0) 215 (85.3) 42 (94.4) 79 (85.5)
    Inpatient surgery 33 (0.4) 12 (1.4) 14 (0.2) 4 (0.7) 17 (1.0) 5 (2.6) 0 (0.0) 2 (1.3)
    Psychiatric admission requiring medical care 75 (1.5) 32 (3.9) 50 (1.6) 14 (3.5) 18 (1.3) 12 (4.7) 0 (0.0) 3 (5.1)
    Trauma 69 (1.1) 23 (2.7) 37 (0.8) 13 (3.4) 27 (1.9) 5 (1.1) 1 (3.6) 2 (1.6)
    Other 68 (1.3) 28 (4.1) 29 (0.8) 7 (2.6) 31 (2.6) 15 (6.3) 2 (2.0) 4 (5.2)
    Unknown 13 (0.2) 3 (0.3) 7 (0.2) 2 (0.4) 6 (0.1) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) 1 (1.2)
    COVID-19–related signs or symptoms on admission¶¶¶
    Yes 4,503 (95.7) 739 (91.9) <0.01 3,072 (97.0) 368 (93.6) 1,069 (92.9) 225 (90.3) 38 (89.5) 82 (90.6)
    No 244 (4.3) 73 (8.1) 113 (3.0) 29 (6.4) 98 (7.1) 27 (9.7) 7 (10.5) 9 (9.4)
    Hospitalization outcome
    Length of stay, days, median (IQR) 5 (3–10) 4 (2–9) <0.01 5 (3–11) 5 (3–9) 5 (3–10) 4 (2–9) 6 (3–18) 4 (2–10)
    ICU admission****,†††† 1,148 (24.2) 149 (16.8) <0.01 820 (25.3) 83 (17.4) 256 (22.7) 41 (16.1) 7 (21.1) 13 (16.8)
    IMV§§§§ 626 (13.6) 70 (7.6) <0.01 467 (14.9) 36 (6.6) 124 (11.2) 21 (8.2) 5 (16.7) 6 (9.2)
    In-hospital death¶¶¶¶ 540 (12.6) 72 (7.0) <0.01 385 (12.6) 42 (7.2) 123 (12.3) 19 (7.1) 5 (19.5) 7 (8.4)
    Vaccination status*****
    Unvaccinated 3,269 (69.5) 409 (49.4) <0.01 NA NA NA NA NA NA
    Primary series, no booster 1,183 (25.0) 255 (32.7) NA NA NA NA NA NA
    Primary series, plus booster 45 (1.3) 93 (13.4) NA NA NA NA NA NA
    Days since last vaccination dose received before positive SARS-CoV-2 test result†††††
    15–60 NA NA NA NA NA 19 (0.9) 3 (1.1) 22 (52.9) 23 (31.2)
    61–120 NA NA NA NA 88 (7.7) 14 (7.6) 11 (30.8) 45 (49.3)
    121–180 NA NA NA NA 336 (26.6) 20 (5.9) 2 (6.3) 12 (13.9)
    >180 NA NA NA NA 560 (64.9) 183 (85.4) 8 (10.0) 4 (5.5)

    Abbreviations: COVID-NET = COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network; ICU = intensive care unit; IMV = invasive mechanical ventilation; LTCF = long-term care facility; NA = not applicable.
    * Data are from a weighted sample of hospitalized nonpregnant adults with completed medical record abstractions and a discharge disposition. Sample sizes presented are unweighted with weighted percentages.
    † Vaccination status is based on state immunization information system data. Adults who completed a primary vaccination series were persons who had received the second dose of a 2-dose COVID-19 vaccination series or a single dose of a 1-dose product ≥14 days before a positive SARS-CoV-2 test associated with their hospitalization but received no booster or additional dose. Adults who received booster doses were classified as those who completed the primary series and received an additional or booster dose on or after August 13, 2021, at any time after completion of the primary series, and ≥14 days before a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2, as COVID-19–associated hospitalizations are a lagging indicator and time passed after receipt of a booster dose has been shown to be associated with reduced rates of COVID-19 infection (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2114255external icon). Adults with a positive result whose SARS-CoV-2 test date was ≥14 days after the first dose of a 2-dose series but <14 days after receipt of the second dose were considered partially vaccinated. Partially vaccinated adults, and those who received a single dose of a 1-dose product <14 days before the positive SARS-CoV-2 test result were not included in analyses by vaccination status but were included in rates and overall proportions that were not stratified by vaccination status. Adults with no documented receipt of any COVID-19 vaccine dose before the test date were considered unvaccinated. If the SARS-CoV-2 test date was not available, hospital admission date was used. Adults whose vaccination status had not yet been verified using the immunization information system data were considered to have unknown vaccination status and were included in total proportions but not stratified by vaccination status. Vaccination status is not available for Iowa and cases from Iowa are excluded from analyses that examined vaccination status. Additional COVID-NET methods for determining vaccination status have been described previously. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.27.21262356v1external icon
    § Delta period: July 1, 2021–December 18, 2021, reflects the time when Delta was the predominant circulating variant; Omicron period: December 19, 2021–January 31, 2022, reflects the time when Omicron was the predominant circulating variant.
    Selected counties in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm). Iowa does not provide data on vaccination status. Starting the week ending December 4, 2021, Maryland data are not included in calculations but are included in previous weeks.
    ** Total hospitalizations include data from selected counties in 14 COVID-NET states irrespective of vaccination status and includes adults with partial or unknown vaccination status. As a result, the number of total hospitalizations exceeds the sum of unvaccinated adults, adults who received a primary series without a booster or additional dose, and adults who received a primary series with a booster or additional dose.
    †† Proportions between the pre-Delta and Delta period were compared using chi-square tests; p-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant, adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni correction method.
    §§ Percentages presented for the overall number are weighted row percentages. Percentages presented for demographic characteristics are weighted column percentages.
    ¶¶ If ethnicity was unknown, non-Hispanic ethnicity was assumed. Persons with multiple, unknown, or missing race accounted for 6.9% (weighted) of all cases. These persons are excluded from the proportions of race/ethnicity but are included in other analyses.
    *** LTCF residents include hospitalized adults who were identified as residents of a nursing home/skilled nursing facility, rehabilitation facility, assisted living/residential care, long-term acute care hospital, group/retirement home, or other LTCF upon hospital admission. A free-text field for other types of residences was examined; patients with an LTCF-type residence were also categorized as LTCF residents.
    ††† Defined as one or more of the following: chronic lung disease including asthma, chronic metabolic disease including diabetes mellitus, blood disorder/hemoglobinopathy, cardiovascular disease, neurologic disorder, immunocompromising condition, renal disease, gastrointestinal/liver disease, rheumatologic/autoimmune/inflammatory condition, obesity, feeding tube dependency, and wheelchair dependency.
    §§§ Includes current treatment or recent diagnosis of an immunosuppressive condition or use of an immunosuppressive therapy during the preceding 12 months.
    ¶¶¶ COVID-19–associated signs and symptoms included respiratory symptoms (congestion or runny nose, cough, hemoptysis or bloody sputum, shortness of breath or respiratory distress, sore throat, upper respiratory infection, influenza-like illness, and wheezing) and non-respiratory symptoms (abdominal pain, altered mental status or confusion, anosmia or decreased smell, chest pain, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, dysgeusia or decreased taste, fatigue, fever or chills, headache, muscle aches or myalgias, nausea or vomiting, rash, and seizures). Symptoms are abstracted from the medical chart and might not be complete.
    **** ICU admission and IMV are not mutually exclusive categories, and patients could have received both.
    †††† ICU admission status was missing in 1.3% (weighted) of hospitalizations; these hospitalizations are included in other analyses.
    §§§§ IMV status was missing in 1.4% (weighted) of hospitalizations; these hospitalizations are otherwise included elsewhere in the analysis.
    ¶¶¶¶ In-hospital death status was missing in 1.4% (weighted) of hospitalizations; these hospitalizations are otherwise included elsewhere in the analysis.
    ***** An additional 172 (3.4%, 95% CI = 2.7%–4.2%) adults were partially vaccinated, 69 (0.9%, 95% CI = 0.6–1.2) received a primary vaccination series <14 days before a positive for SARS-CoV-2 test result, and 186 (4.1%) had unknown vaccination status; these groups are not further described in this analysis.
    ††††† If SARS-CoV-2 test date was missing, hospitalization admission date was used.

    Suggested citation for this article: Taylor CA, Whitaker M, Anglin O, et al. COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations Among Adults During SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron Variant Predominance, by Race/Ethnicity and Vaccination Status — COVID-NET, 14 States, July 2021–January 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:466–473. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7112e2external icon.


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