Data

The pandemic has eroded Americans’ trust in experts and elected leaders alike, a survey finds.

As the coronavirus pandemic entered its third year, the American public had lost much of its trust both in public health experts and in government leaders, and was less worried than before about Covid-19, according to a survey conducted in early May and released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

Confidence ratings for public health officials, like those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; for state and local elected officials; and for President Biden fell in a range from 43 percent to 54 percent in the survey — much lower than during the early stages of the pandemic.

BA.5, now dominant U.S. variant, may pose the biggest threat to immune protection yet The FDA recommended that Covid vaccine makers target two omicron subvariants — BA.4 and BA.5 — in new booster shots expected to come this fall. NBC News

...

The coronavirus subvariant known as BA.5 accounted for nearly 54% of the country's Covid cases as of Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar subvariant, BA.4, makes up 17% more.

At a glance, the pandemic picture in the United States may seem remarkably stable. The average number of new confirmed coronavirus cases per day has hardly budged for weeks, hovering between 95,000 and 115,000 a day each day in June.