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Dec. 10 Coronavirus updates: Weekly initial jobless claims surge to 853,000
Rachel Bluth, Kaiser Health News and Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News
10d ago / 10:32 AM UTC
Farmworkers, firefighters and flight attendants jockey for vaccine priority
With front-line health workers and nursing home residents and staff members expected to get the initial doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the thornier question is figuring out who goes next.
The answer will likely depend on where you live.
While an influential federal advisory board is expected to make its recommendations this month, state health departments and governors will make the calls on who gets access to a limited number of vaccines this winter.
As a result, it has been a free-for-all in recent weeks as manufacturers, grocers, bank tellers, dentists and drive-share companies all jostle to get spots near the front of the line.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 this month to give first vaccination priority to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities after one or more Covid-19 vaccines are approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration. The advisory committee is expected to provide further details of its list of prioritized recipients before year’s end.
Its next recommendations are likely to focus on prioritizing people who keep society functioning, like workers in food and agriculture, public safety and education. Older people and those with chronic diseases are also considered to be high on the list.
Reuters
9d ago / 11:24 AM UTC
Sanofi and GSK delay Covid-19 vaccine, marking setback for global fight
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said clinical trials of their Covid-19 vaccine showed an insufficient immune response in older people, delaying its launch to late next year and marking a setback in the global fight against the pandemic.
The announcement on Friday, which highlighted the challenges of developing shots at record speed, hinders efforts to develop the multiple options that experts say the world needs to counter a disease that has killed over 1.5 million people.
The news, which came on the same day as Australia axed a domestic vaccine project, is also a blow for many governments that have booked hundreds of millions of doses of the shot, including the European Union, United States and Britain.
The two companies said they planned to start another study next February, hoping to come up with a more effective vaccine by the end of 2021.
The setback affects one of the most established technologies in vaccines — used against the human papillomavirus, hepatitis B and pertussis among other pathogens — which aims to introduce lab-made proteins into the body to prod the immune system into developing a targeted defense against the novel coronavirus.
It cements the lead of more novel approaches used by vaccines from the likes of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which use mRNA genetic technology to trick the body into producing those proteins. Both of those shots were found to be about 95 percent effective in successful large-scale trials.
Reuters
10d ago / 6:41 AM UTC
Pope’s Christmas midnight Mass to shift earlier because of curfew
ROME — Pope Francis will celebrate Midnight Mass at 7:30 p.m. this year to comply with Italy’s anti-coronavirus curfew.
He’ll also deliver his Christmas Day blessing indoors to prevent crowds from forming in St. Peter’s Square.
The Dec. 24 Mass has for years been celebrated not at midnight but at 9:30 p.m. to spare pontiffs from the late hour. But this year it will be bumped up two hours earlier, according to the pope’s Christmas liturgical schedule released Thursday by the Vatican.
Italy has imposed a 10 p.m. nationwide curfew, restaurant closures and other restrictions to cut down on crowds forming after a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths this fall.
Francis will celebrate New Year’s Eve vespers and New Year’s Day Mass in the basilica. None of the services will be open to the public.
10d ago / 6:30 AM UTC
Marvel comic book honors superhero nurses saving lives
Phil Helsel
10d ago / 6:14 AM UTC
3,110 Covid deaths reported across the U.S. on Thursday
The United States on Thursday broke another single-day record for Covid-19 cases and deaths, according to NBC News’ count.
Nearly 230,000 new infections and 3,110 deaths were reported.
It was the eighth day in December that saw more than 200,000 new cases; the first was Dec. 2. There have been only two days so far this month in which daily reported cases did not break that threshold.
The new record for deaths came just one day after the previous was set. On Wednesday, 3,102 deaths were reported, according to NBC News’ count.
Overall, the U.S. has seen more than 15.6 million cases of Covid-19, and more than 292,900 people have died.
10d ago / 4:50 AM UTC
Delaware adopts new rules as cases surge
Phil Helsel
10d ago / 4:21 AM UTC
Miami to enforce nightly curfew
Miami’s city commission on Thursday voted to enforce a county curfew that lasts from midnight to 6 a.m., starting this weekend.
“The Miami Police Department will be enforcing the curfew and violators — whether individuals or business establishments — are subject to fines and other enforcement actions,” the city said in a statement.
City Commissioner Joe Carollo introduced the resolution to resume enforcement after a personal warning from a health system CEO that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases, NBC Miami reported. In October, the city commission had voted to stop enforcing the county’s curfew, so Thursday’s vote means it will again begin doing so.
10d ago / 2:40 AM UTC
The Associated Press
10d ago / 2:06 AM UTC
Texas county gets trucks to hold bodies amid surge
FORT WORTH, Texas — A North Texas medical examiner’s office has brought in two refrigerated trucks to store dead bodies in response to low capacity amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Many of the hospitals and larger funeral homes in the Fort Worth area have reached their storage capacity or will soon, said Nizam Peerwani, Tarrant County’s chief medical examiner.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, which has a capacity normally of 100 bodies, said each truck can store 50 bodies.
Officials expect to start using the trucks in the next few days.
10d ago / 1:22 AM UTC
Duke men’s basketball cancels remaining nonconference games
The Associated Press
10d ago / 1:11 AM UTC
World carbon dioxide emissions drop 7% in pandemic-hit 2020
A locked-down, pandemic-struck world cut its carbon dioxide emissions this year by 7 percent, the biggest drop ever, new preliminary figures show.
The Global Carbon Project, an authoritative group of dozens of international scientists who track emissions, calculated that the world will have put 37 billion U.S. tons of carbon dioxide in the air in 2020. That’s down from 40.1 billion tons in 2019, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Earth System Science Data.
Scientists say this drop is chiefly because people are staying home, traveling less by car and plane, and that emissions are expected to jump back up after the pandemic ends. Ground transportation makes up about one-fifth of emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief man-made heat-trapping gas.
Emissions dropped 12 percent in the United States and 11 percent in Europe but only 1.7 percent in China.
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Dec. 10 Coronavirus updates: Weekly initial jobless claims surge to 853,000
SCUC-CCP :: Selective Cause Until it is Concluded : Coronavirus Covid-19 Pandemic
Coronavirus updates: CDC advisory committee recommends Moderna vaccine; UK imposes tough lockdowns due to possible new strain
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Vice President Mike Pence received the COVID-19 vaccine on December 18. USA TODAY
USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as vaccines begin to roll out nationwide. Just this week, the U.S. marked the stark milestone of more than 17 million cases and 300,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates on vaccine distribution, including who is getting the shots and where, as well as other COVID-19 news from across the USA TODAY Network. Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates directly to your inbox, join our Facebook group or scroll through our in-depth answers to reader questions for everything you need to know about the coronavirus.
In the headlines:
► Distribution of Moderna’s newly-authorized vaccine began Saturday and will arrive to states Monday, said Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is on track to deliver 20 million doses of both vaccines to states by the first week of January.
► Tennessee’s First Lady Maria Lee has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Gov. Bill Lee’s office. Maria Lee learned of the positive test result Saturday afternoon after she “began exhibiting mild symptoms of COVID-19,” according to a statement from the governor.
► Stimulus talks stalled Saturday. As the hours ticked down towards another government shutdown deadline, senators deadlocked over Republicans’ insistence a provision ending certain emergency Federal Reserve powers be included in the bill.
► States this week found themselves scrambling to adjust as they received word they would get between 20% and 40% less vaccine next week than they had been told as late as Dec. 9. After days of confusion, the source of the problem was finally clarified Friday night: States were given estimates based on vaccine doses produced, not those that had been OK’d.
► A U.S. college student and her boyfriend have been sentenced to four months in prison in the Cayman Islands for violating strict COVID-19 measures.
► Santa Claus may be immune to COVID-19 but he now has an extra layer of protection thanks to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. Fauci told children watching a ‘Sesame Street’ town hall put on by CNN Saturday that he vaccinated Kris Kringle himself.
► Minnesota State Sen. Jerry Relph, who represented the city of St. Cloud, died Thursday. He tested positive for the coronavirus on Nov. 13, but his cause of death is unknown at this time.
► The U.K. is imposing stricter lockdowns to curb rapidly spreading infections — possibly linked to a new strain of the virus identified this week. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that nonessential shops, hairdressers and indoor leisure venues will be closed. “It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot proceed with Christmas as planned,” Johnson said.
► President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will be getting their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Monday, according to Biden’s incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki. Among high-profile politicians to receive the vaccine Friday: Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 17.6 million coronavirus cases and more than 316,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 76 million cases and 1.6 million deaths.
Here’s a closer look at today’s top stories:
CDC advisory committee recommends Moderna vaccine
An important public health committee voted unanimously Saturday to recommend Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 years old and older.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is an outside committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its recommendations are used to set the vaccination schedule for the United States.
“Safety has been a paramount focus,” said Dr. José Romero, committee chair and a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Arkansas.
The recommendation now goes to CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield for a signature.
The Moderna vaccine was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday and will begin to arrive in all 50 states on Monday.
– Elizabeth Weise
Moderna vaccine distribution begins, will be delivered Monday
Packages of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, authorized on Friday, are being packaged Saturday for delivery on Monday, Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, said.
“Distribution of Moderna vaccine has already begun,” Perna said at a Saturday morning news briefing.
The vaccine is being manufactured for Moderna in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, by Lonza, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company. From there, it will be distributed by McKesson, a medical supply company. McKesson will pack the vaccine, which comes in 10-dose vials, into special thermal shipping boxes that can maintain the necessary standard refrigerator temperature of 26 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit.
Those boxes will be packed onto UPS and FedEx trucks to begin the transportation, which will have them delivered to all 50 states by Monday.
“Trucks will begin rolling out tomorrow, from FedEx and UPS, delivering vaccines and kits to the American people across the United States,” Perna said.
He said 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been delivered and that the U.S. government is on track to deliver 20 million doses to states by the first week of January. That number includes both Pfizer and Moderna doses.
– Elizabeth Weise
As COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, undocumented immigrants fear retribution
After years of isolationist and punitive immigration policies from the Trump administration, many immigrants — whose physical and fiscal health has, along with many people of color, been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic — might be unwilling to come forward and get vaccinated.
COVID-19 has been particularly merciless to Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans for reasons that include poverty, preexisting health conditions and front-line jobs. This demographic includes many immigrants, with the vast majority of those undocumented hailing from Mexico and Central America. Many of them are critical to farming and meatpacking, and their illness and death represent both a human tragedy and an economic blow.
“The vaccine must be fully available to undocumented Americans, if not, it will put all of us at risk,” said Manuel Pastor, head of the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, which uses data and analysis to dissect equity issues. Read more here.
– Marco della Cava, Daniel Gonzalez and Rebecca Plevin, USA TODAY Network
How will big cities change after COVID-19?
With the COVID-19 vaccine beginning to roll out, how the biggest cities in the United States — economic engines and cultural cauldrons such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Miami — return from the deadliest global health crisis in a century may in some ways foreshadow how the United States bounces back.
Urban planners, economists and architects share a resoundingly positive consensus. They say that buoyed by a younger demographic drawn to jobs, social opportunities and public services, cities will survive this crisis much as they did the Spanish Flu of 1918 and the terrorist attacks on 9/11, an echo of European capitals’ resilience after the bubonic plague of the 1300s and cholera outbreak of the early 1800s.
Some even posit that a year from now the United States might be in the midst of a new Roaring ‘20s, a reference to giddy good times that followed the Spanish Flu.
Part of that growth will depend on how quickly and effectively cities pivot in the wake of a landscape-altering pandemic. A lot of that will depend on how fast municipal financial coffers, depleted by lost real estate and sales tax revenue, fill back up or whether federal aid comes to the rescue. Read more here.
– Marco della Cava
Democrats in Congress ask CDC to list educators as critical group for vaccine
A Friday letter obtained by USA TODAY and signed by 25 Democratic members of Congress urges the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to list K-12 teachers and school personnel among the groups of critical workers who will be prioritized in vaccine distribution.
Teachers getting sick from COVID-19 or quarantining because of exposure to the virus has been a major hurdle to keeping schools open in recent months. The letter says that vaccinating teachers will make it easier to reopen schools while also protecting educators, who put themselves at a greater risk for contracting the virus when they teach in-person.
“Prioritizing COVID- 19 vaccinations for K-12 educators and school personnel recognizes the essential work of these professionals, enables a safer return to in-person instruction, and provides the means necessary for tens of millions of workers to breathe life into the American economy,” the letter says.
The letter, addressed to CDC director Robert Redfield, acknowledges states have the final say in vaccination distribution, but the federal agency’s guidance helps shape those policies.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Artists Jack Schwab, and Debbie Wilger, wear their masks July 14, 2020, inside the Missouri Artists on Main store in downtown St. Charles, Mo. Schwab, 60, who makes silver jewelry, and Wilger, 63, a painter, are concerned about the uptick in coronavirus cases in St. Charles County, and say most customers in the store abide by their facial covering policy, but a few have left in anger because of it. Jim Salter, AP
Alice Mayes, 92, is visited by her family at Signature HealthCARE on May 6, 2020 in NewBurgh, Ind. The family, from left, Onya Rhoades, Lexi Rhoads, 3, Dylan Rhoades, 5, Kaitlyn Helmbrecht, 2, James Helmbrecht and Del Mayes were separated by a window glass on May 6, 2020 in Newburgh, Ind. The 92-year-old is a COVID-19 survivor. Denny Simmons, Evansville Courier & Press
Austin High School seniors and best friends, clockwise from top left, Brooke Peterman, 17, Maddy McCutchin, 18, Lucia Saenz, 17, Reese Simek, 18, and Lily Tickle, 18, visit with each other in the parking lot at the school in Austin, Texas, on Sunday April 5, 2020. In the midst of a shelter in place order due to the coronavirus pandemic, the girls sat in the back of their cars to chat at a safe distance. Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman / USA TODAY Network
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Coronavirus updates: CDC advisory committee recommends Moderna vaccine; UK imposes tough lockdowns due to possible new strain
SCUC-CCP :: Selective Cause Until it is Concluded : Coronavirus Covid-19 Pandemic
LIVE UPDATES: Moderna gets the green light: FDA formally grants emergency approval for second coronavirus vacc
The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization Friday for a second coronavirus vaccine produced by Moderna for people ages 18 and younger, the agency said Friday.
An independent advisory panel to the FDA voted to endorse Moderna’s shot Thursday. The U.S. surpassed 17 million total cases on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
“With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn. “Through the FDA’s open and transparent scientific review process, two COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized in an expedited timeframe while adhering to the rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization that the American people have come to expect from the FDA.”
FDA advisory panel vote to endorse Moderna vaccine Thursday was 20-0. One committee member abstained.
Committee members voted to endorse the vaccine’s use in individuals ages 18 and older, while Pfizer received emergency approval last week for those ages 16 and up.
Vice President Mike Pence, his wife and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams all rolled their sleeves Friday morning and received the recently approved Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on live television.
The vaccinations were administered following a breaking report from top officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the agency is “rapidly working” to approve Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Follow below for the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic. Mobile users click here.
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LIVE UPDATES: Moderna gets the green light: FDA formally grants emergency approval for second coronavirus vacc
SCUC-CCP :: Selective Cause Until it is Concluded : Coronavirus Covid-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 vaccine timeline: When will they be distributed and how?
With the dark winter months looming, there’s one glimmer of hope in the fight against the COVID-19 crisis.
Two, to be exact.
Vaccine candidates from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and from Moderna have shown to be 95 percent effective in ongoing trials.
The promising results have prompted both drugmakers to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use — with the shots expected to be distributed within 24 hours if given the green light.
But while federal health officials remain optimistic that help is on the way, the availability of vaccines doesn’t equate to an immediate cure to coronavirus.
Here is a realistic timeline of when an effective vaccine could be on tap for all Americans.
When will a vaccine be available?
Millions of doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should be available to certain groups by the end of December, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
“We expect to have about 40 million doses of these two vaccines available for distribution pending FDA authorization — enough to vaccinate about 20 million of our most vulnerable Americans,” Azar said at a Nov. 18 press briefing. “And production of course would continue to ramp up after that.”
Globally, Pfizer has said it could have 50 million doses by year’s end.
A different projection, according to information presented to the National Academy of Medicine in late November, said about 25 million doses could become available in the US in December, 30 million in January and 35 million more in February and March.
The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed has worked with states to determine how many doses they’ll need to cover the populations offered a vaccine first.
Azar said once the FDA gives the green light, millions of doses will be shipped within the first 24 hours.
“So my message is hope and help are on the way,” he said.
Emergency approval from the FDA, however, is not the same as full approval, meaning anyone who gets the shot will receive a “fact sheet” listing the potential benefits and risks as the studies continue, Dr. Marion Gruber told the Associated Press.
How will vaccines be distributed and who will get them first?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will have the final say on who gets first dibs, and Azar has said the initial batch of vaccinations will go to the “most vulnerable Americans” first.
That committee is following guidance from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which advises divvying up the vaccine distribution in phases.
The first phase includes front-line health workers and first responders, people with underlying conditions that put them at high risk of serious illness, and adults age 65 and older living in overcrowded settings, including nursing homes, homeless shelters, prisons, jails and long-term health care facilities.
Phase one makes up about 15 percent of the US population.
Phase two encompasses K-12 teachers, school staff, child care workers, people with underlying conditions that put them at moderately higher risk, public transit workers, those in the food supply system, and those in homeless shelters or group homes, and prison and jail inmates, as well as staffers there. These groups make up about 30 to 35 percent of the population.
Phase three — which covers about 40 to 45 percent of Americans — includes young adults, children and workers in industries such as hotels, banks, higher education, gyms and factories. However, the guidance says immunization of children will depend on safety testing.
All other Americans not included in the first three phases are covered in phase four.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said average, healthy Americans could expect to get their first doses as early as April and through July, he told USA Today.
How much will the vaccines cost?
The federal government, which has a $1.95 billion contract to buy millions of Pfizer-BioNTech doses, as well those from other successful candidates, has promised the shots will be free.
That said, Pfizer-BioNTech has set an initial price at $19.50 a dose, while Moderna, which has a $1.5 billion contract for 100 million doses, will cost taxpayers $25 a dose, Forbes reported.
Two doses three weeks apart are needed for full immunization.
Will a vaccine offer complete protection against COVID-19?
Immunization may keep you from getting severely ill but “won’t necessarily prevent you from getting infected,” Fauci said.
“The issue is that you’re not going to be completely protected against a degree of infection that you might not even notice that you might be able to spread to others,” the top doc said in a virtual chat with the Hastings Center.
“Which is the reason why the message you may have heard me say over the last couple weeks in the media is that getting vaccinated with a highly efficacious vaccine does not mean that you’re going to abandon completely public health measures.”
It will also take time to build up herd immunity, when a large portion of a population becomes immune to a disease, through vaccination — and that’s only if enough people decide to get jabbed.
A poll in August found that 35 percent of respondents said they won’t get a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available.
But if most of the US is vaccinated by summer and fall, Fauci said we can then look toward getting back to normal.
“Then you can start talking about this umbrella or blanket of protection on society that would diminish dramatically the risk of a person being exposed or even being infected,” he told USA Today. “When so many people are protected, that’s when you get into the real herd immunity.”
How long does it typically take to develop a vaccine?
Outside of the backdrop of a deadly pandemic, vaccines typically take more than 10 years to develop, according to the British health charity Wellcome Trust.
The first two to five years is usually dominated by discovery research, which includes the development of up to 100 potential vaccines, according to the charity.
The preclinical phase then takes about two years to complete, in which about 20 vaccine candidates are moved to the next round.
Phase three is when human trials are conducted and could take between 5 and 9 years as scientists figure out if the vaccine is safe, activates an immune response and protects against the disease.
The final phase, which is seeking regulatory review and approval, can typically take about one to two years.
The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is charging along at warp speed, however, scientists also aren’t starting from scratch, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Past research on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) vaccines gave drugmakers a leg-up in determining potential approaches when vaccine development started earlier this year, the medical center said.
In the early twentieth century, it took scientists about 19 years to develop an effective vaccine for yellow fever, Business Insider reported.
The chickenpox vaccine took 28 years to develop and the polio vaccine took six years, according to William Petri, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Virginia, writing in The Conversation.
For the measles vaccine, the virus was first isolated in 1954 but an effective immunization — which treated measles, mumps and rubella — didn’t come out until 1971, according to the History of Vaccines, which is linked on the CDC’s website.
The mumps vaccine — which was developed in four years by pharmaceutical company Merck — was the fastest to be approved for human use, according to the Washington Post.
With Post wires
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COVID-19 vaccine timeline: When will they be distributed and how?
SCUC-CCP :: Selective Cause Until it is Concluded : Coronavirus Covid-19 Pandemic
December 19 coronavirus news
Syringes and vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared to be administered to front-line health care workers in Reno, Nevada, on December 17. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Saturday encouraged the public to get educated about Covid-19 vaccines.
“We all have more information on these vaccines, at the point of administering them to the public, than we’ve had for any vaccine in history,” Adams said during a news conference hosted by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Adams said he got vaccinated publicly to help instill trust in Covid-19 vaccines.
“My arm feels fine. It’s a little bit sore, but no more sore than when I had the flu shot. I didn’t have any side effects at all,” Adams said, noting that it is normal for people to experience a low fever, headache or fatigue after receiving the vaccine.
Adams encouraged the public to seek out information about the vaccines.
“It’s okay to have questions. It’s okay to ask questions,” he said. “What is not okay is to let misinformation or mistrust cause you to make a decision which is going to be bad for your health, or your family’s health, or your community’s health.”
“This vaccine is almost 100% certain to prevent you or your loved one from getting severe disease,” Adams added. “It is the way we end this pandemic.”
A large effort: The US is leveraging every bit of authority and power it has to produce Covid-19 vaccines, Adams said.
“I can tell you, with every degree of certainty from being on the Coronavirus Task Force, that we are doing everything we can to produce these vaccines as quickly as possible,” Adams said during a news conference hosted by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Adams said the US is on track to have 20 million vaccine doses by the end of December; 50 million by the end of January and 100 million by the end of February.
“That is half of the adult US population,” Adams noted.
He added that he’s more concerned about vaccine confidence than he is about vaccine supply.
“We’ve got to go from vaccines to vaccinations,” Adams said.
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December 19 coronavirus news
SCUC-CCP :: Selective Cause Until it is Concluded : Coronavirus Covid-19 Pandemic
Add Story/ Your Say Until the Cause is Concluded
[*Select Category/Tag:
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Dec. 10 Coronavirus updates: Weekly initial jobless claims surge to 853,000
Dec. 10 Coronavirus updates: Weekly initial jobless claims surge to 853,000
Rachel Bluth, Kaiser Health News and Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News
10d ago / 10:32 AM UTC
Farmworkers, firefighters and flight attendants jockey for vaccine priority
With front-line health workers and nursing home residents and staff members expected to get the initial doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the thornier question is figuring out who goes next.
The answer will likely depend on where you live.
While an influential federal advisory board is expected to make its recommendations this month, state health departments and governors will make the calls on who gets access to a limited number of vaccines this winter.
As a result, it has been a free-for-all in recent weeks as manufacturers, grocers, bank tellers, dentists and drive-share companies all jostle to get spots near the front of the line.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 this month to give first vaccination priority to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities after one or more Covid-19 vaccines are approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration. The advisory committee is expected to provide further details of its list of prioritized recipients before year’s end.
Its next recommendations are likely to focus on prioritizing people who keep society functioning, like workers in food and agriculture, public safety and education. Older people and those with chronic diseases are also considered to be high on the list.
Reuters
9d ago / 11:24 AM UTC
Sanofi and GSK delay Covid-19 vaccine, marking setback for global fight
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said clinical trials of their Covid-19 vaccine showed an insufficient immune response in older people, delaying its launch to late next year and marking a setback in the global fight against the pandemic.
The announcement on Friday, which highlighted the challenges of developing shots at record speed, hinders efforts to develop the multiple options that experts say the world needs to counter a disease that has killed over 1.5 million people.
The news, which came on the same day as Australia axed a domestic vaccine project, is also a blow for many governments that have booked hundreds of millions of doses of the shot, including the European Union, United States and Britain.
The two companies said they planned to start another study next February, hoping to come up with a more effective vaccine by the end of 2021.
The setback affects one of the most established technologies in vaccines — used against the human papillomavirus, hepatitis B and pertussis among other pathogens — which aims to introduce lab-made proteins into the body to prod the immune system into developing a targeted defense against the novel coronavirus.
It cements the lead of more novel approaches used by vaccines from the likes of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which use mRNA genetic technology to trick the body into producing those proteins. Both of those shots were found to be about 95 percent effective in successful large-scale trials.
Reuters
10d ago / 6:41 AM UTC
Pope’s Christmas midnight Mass to shift earlier because of curfew
ROME — Pope Francis will celebrate Midnight Mass at 7:30 p.m. this year to comply with Italy’s anti-coronavirus curfew.
He’ll also deliver his Christmas Day blessing indoors to prevent crowds from forming in St. Peter’s Square.
The Dec. 24 Mass has for years been celebrated not at midnight but at 9:30 p.m. to spare pontiffs from the late hour. But this year it will be bumped up two hours earlier, according to the pope’s Christmas liturgical schedule released Thursday by the Vatican.
Italy has imposed a 10 p.m. nationwide curfew, restaurant closures and other restrictions to cut down on crowds forming after a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths this fall.
Francis will celebrate New Year’s Eve vespers and New Year’s Day Mass in the basilica. None of the services will be open to the public.
10d ago / 6:30 AM UTC
Marvel comic book honors superhero nurses saving lives
Phil Helsel
10d ago / 6:14 AM UTC
3,110 Covid deaths reported across the U.S. on Thursday
The United States on Thursday broke another single-day record for Covid-19 cases and deaths, according to NBC News’ count.
Nearly 230,000 new infections and 3,110 deaths were reported.
It was the eighth day in December that saw more than 200,000 new cases; the first was Dec. 2. There have been only two days so far this month in which daily reported cases did not break that threshold.
The new record for deaths came just one day after the previous was set. On Wednesday, 3,102 deaths were reported, according to NBC News’ count.
Overall, the U.S. has seen more than 15.6 million cases of Covid-19, and more than 292,900 people have died.
10d ago / 4:50 AM UTC
Delaware adopts new rules as cases surge
Phil Helsel
10d ago / 4:21 AM UTC
Miami to enforce nightly curfew
Miami’s city commission on Thursday voted to enforce a county curfew that lasts from midnight to 6 a.m., starting this weekend.
“The Miami Police Department will be enforcing the curfew and violators — whether individuals or business establishments — are subject to fines and other enforcement actions,” the city said in a statement.
City Commissioner Joe Carollo introduced the resolution to resume enforcement after a personal warning from a health system CEO that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases, NBC Miami reported. In October, the city commission had voted to stop enforcing the county’s curfew, so Thursday’s vote means it will again begin doing so.
10d ago / 2:40 AM UTC
The Associated Press
10d ago / 2:06 AM UTC
Texas county gets trucks to hold bodies amid surge
FORT WORTH, Texas — A North Texas medical examiner’s office has brought in two refrigerated trucks to store dead bodies in response to low capacity amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Many of the hospitals and larger funeral homes in the Fort Worth area have reached their storage capacity or will soon, said Nizam Peerwani, Tarrant County’s chief medical examiner.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, which has a capacity normally of 100 bodies, said each truck can store 50 bodies.
Officials expect to start using the trucks in the next few days.
10d ago / 1:22 AM UTC
Duke men’s basketball cancels remaining nonconference games
The Associated Press
10d ago / 1:11 AM UTC
World carbon dioxide emissions drop 7% in pandemic-hit 2020
A locked-down, pandemic-struck world cut its carbon dioxide emissions this year by 7 percent, the biggest drop ever, new preliminary figures show.
The Global Carbon Project, an authoritative group of dozens of international scientists who track emissions, calculated that the world will have put 37 billion U.S. tons of carbon dioxide in the air in 2020. That’s down from 40.1 billion tons in 2019, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Earth System Science Data.
Scientists say this drop is chiefly because people are staying home, traveling less by car and plane, and that emissions are expected to jump back up after the pandemic ends. Ground transportation makes up about one-fifth of emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief man-made heat-trapping gas.
Emissions dropped 12 percent in the United States and 11 percent in Europe but only 1.7 percent in China.
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Dec. 10 Coronavirus updates: Weekly initial jobless claims surge to 853,000
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Coronavirus updates: CDC advisory committee recommends Moderna vaccine; UK imposes tough lockdowns due to possible new strain
Coronavirus updates: CDC advisory committee recommends Moderna vaccine; UK imposes tough lockdowns due to possible new strain
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Vice President Mike Pence received the COVID-19 vaccine on December 18. USA TODAY
USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as vaccines begin to roll out nationwide. Just this week, the U.S. marked the stark milestone of more than 17 million cases and 300,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates on vaccine distribution, including who is getting the shots and where, as well as other COVID-19 news from across the USA TODAY Network. Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates directly to your inbox, join our Facebook group or scroll through our in-depth answers to reader questions for everything you need to know about the coronavirus.
In the headlines:
► Distribution of Moderna’s newly-authorized vaccine began Saturday and will arrive to states Monday, said Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is on track to deliver 20 million doses of both vaccines to states by the first week of January.
► Tennessee’s First Lady Maria Lee has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Gov. Bill Lee’s office. Maria Lee learned of the positive test result Saturday afternoon after she “began exhibiting mild symptoms of COVID-19,” according to a statement from the governor.
► Stimulus talks stalled Saturday. As the hours ticked down towards another government shutdown deadline, senators deadlocked over Republicans’ insistence a provision ending certain emergency Federal Reserve powers be included in the bill.
► States this week found themselves scrambling to adjust as they received word they would get between 20% and 40% less vaccine next week than they had been told as late as Dec. 9. After days of confusion, the source of the problem was finally clarified Friday night: States were given estimates based on vaccine doses produced, not those that had been OK’d.
► A U.S. college student and her boyfriend have been sentenced to four months in prison in the Cayman Islands for violating strict COVID-19 measures.
► Santa Claus may be immune to COVID-19 but he now has an extra layer of protection thanks to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. Fauci told children watching a ‘Sesame Street’ town hall put on by CNN Saturday that he vaccinated Kris Kringle himself.
► Minnesota State Sen. Jerry Relph, who represented the city of St. Cloud, died Thursday. He tested positive for the coronavirus on Nov. 13, but his cause of death is unknown at this time.
► The U.K. is imposing stricter lockdowns to curb rapidly spreading infections — possibly linked to a new strain of the virus identified this week. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that nonessential shops, hairdressers and indoor leisure venues will be closed. “It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot proceed with Christmas as planned,” Johnson said.
► President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will be getting their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Monday, according to Biden’s incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki. Among high-profile politicians to receive the vaccine Friday: Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 17.6 million coronavirus cases and more than 316,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 76 million cases and 1.6 million deaths.
Here’s a closer look at today’s top stories:
CDC advisory committee recommends Moderna vaccine
An important public health committee voted unanimously Saturday to recommend Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 years old and older.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is an outside committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its recommendations are used to set the vaccination schedule for the United States.
“Safety has been a paramount focus,” said Dr. José Romero, committee chair and a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Arkansas.
The recommendation now goes to CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield for a signature.
The Moderna vaccine was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday and will begin to arrive in all 50 states on Monday.
– Elizabeth Weise
Moderna vaccine distribution begins, will be delivered Monday
Packages of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, authorized on Friday, are being packaged Saturday for delivery on Monday, Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, said.
“Distribution of Moderna vaccine has already begun,” Perna said at a Saturday morning news briefing.
The vaccine is being manufactured for Moderna in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, by Lonza, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company. From there, it will be distributed by McKesson, a medical supply company. McKesson will pack the vaccine, which comes in 10-dose vials, into special thermal shipping boxes that can maintain the necessary standard refrigerator temperature of 26 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit.
Those boxes will be packed onto UPS and FedEx trucks to begin the transportation, which will have them delivered to all 50 states by Monday.
“Trucks will begin rolling out tomorrow, from FedEx and UPS, delivering vaccines and kits to the American people across the United States,” Perna said.
He said 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been delivered and that the U.S. government is on track to deliver 20 million doses to states by the first week of January. That number includes both Pfizer and Moderna doses.
– Elizabeth Weise
As COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, undocumented immigrants fear retribution
After years of isolationist and punitive immigration policies from the Trump administration, many immigrants — whose physical and fiscal health has, along with many people of color, been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic — might be unwilling to come forward and get vaccinated.
COVID-19 has been particularly merciless to Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans for reasons that include poverty, preexisting health conditions and front-line jobs. This demographic includes many immigrants, with the vast majority of those undocumented hailing from Mexico and Central America. Many of them are critical to farming and meatpacking, and their illness and death represent both a human tragedy and an economic blow.
“The vaccine must be fully available to undocumented Americans, if not, it will put all of us at risk,” said Manuel Pastor, head of the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, which uses data and analysis to dissect equity issues. Read more here.
– Marco della Cava, Daniel Gonzalez and Rebecca Plevin, USA TODAY Network
How will big cities change after COVID-19?
With the COVID-19 vaccine beginning to roll out, how the biggest cities in the United States — economic engines and cultural cauldrons such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Miami — return from the deadliest global health crisis in a century may in some ways foreshadow how the United States bounces back.
Urban planners, economists and architects share a resoundingly positive consensus. They say that buoyed by a younger demographic drawn to jobs, social opportunities and public services, cities will survive this crisis much as they did the Spanish Flu of 1918 and the terrorist attacks on 9/11, an echo of European capitals’ resilience after the bubonic plague of the 1300s and cholera outbreak of the early 1800s.
Some even posit that a year from now the United States might be in the midst of a new Roaring ‘20s, a reference to giddy good times that followed the Spanish Flu.
Part of that growth will depend on how quickly and effectively cities pivot in the wake of a landscape-altering pandemic. A lot of that will depend on how fast municipal financial coffers, depleted by lost real estate and sales tax revenue, fill back up or whether federal aid comes to the rescue. Read more here.
– Marco della Cava
Democrats in Congress ask CDC to list educators as critical group for vaccine
A Friday letter obtained by USA TODAY and signed by 25 Democratic members of Congress urges the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to list K-12 teachers and school personnel among the groups of critical workers who will be prioritized in vaccine distribution.
Teachers getting sick from COVID-19 or quarantining because of exposure to the virus has been a major hurdle to keeping schools open in recent months. The letter says that vaccinating teachers will make it easier to reopen schools while also protecting educators, who put themselves at a greater risk for contracting the virus when they teach in-person.
“Prioritizing COVID- 19 vaccinations for K-12 educators and school personnel recognizes the essential work of these professionals, enables a safer return to in-person instruction, and provides the means necessary for tens of millions of workers to breathe life into the American economy,” the letter says.
The letter, addressed to CDC director Robert Redfield, acknowledges states have the final say in vaccination distribution, but the federal agency’s guidance helps shape those policies.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Artists Jack Schwab, and Debbie Wilger, wear their masks July 14, 2020, inside the Missouri Artists on Main store in downtown St. Charles, Mo. Schwab, 60, who makes silver jewelry, and Wilger, 63, a painter, are concerned about the uptick in coronavirus cases in St. Charles County, and say most customers in the store abide by their facial covering policy, but a few have left in anger because of it. Jim Salter, AP
Alice Mayes, 92, is visited by her family at Signature HealthCARE on May 6, 2020 in NewBurgh, Ind. The family, from left, Onya Rhoades, Lexi Rhoads, 3, Dylan Rhoades, 5, Kaitlyn Helmbrecht, 2, James Helmbrecht and Del Mayes were separated by a window glass on May 6, 2020 in Newburgh, Ind. The 92-year-old is a COVID-19 survivor. Denny Simmons, Evansville Courier & Press
Austin High School seniors and best friends, clockwise from top left, Brooke Peterman, 17, Maddy McCutchin, 18, Lucia Saenz, 17, Reese Simek, 18, and Lily Tickle, 18, visit with each other in the parking lot at the school in Austin, Texas, on Sunday April 5, 2020. In the midst of a shelter in place order due to the coronavirus pandemic, the girls sat in the back of their cars to chat at a safe distance. Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman / USA TODAY Network
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Coronavirus updates: CDC advisory committee recommends Moderna vaccine; UK imposes tough lockdowns due to possible new strain
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LIVE UPDATES: Moderna gets the green light: FDA formally grants emergency approval for second coronavirus vacc
LIVE UPDATES: Moderna gets the green light: FDA formally grants emergency approval for second coronavirus vacc
The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization Friday for a second coronavirus vaccine produced by Moderna for people ages 18 and younger, the agency said Friday.
An independent advisory panel to the FDA voted to endorse Moderna’s shot Thursday. The U.S. surpassed 17 million total cases on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
“With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn. “Through the FDA’s open and transparent scientific review process, two COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized in an expedited timeframe while adhering to the rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization that the American people have come to expect from the FDA.”
FDA advisory panel vote to endorse Moderna vaccine Thursday was 20-0. One committee member abstained.
Committee members voted to endorse the vaccine’s use in individuals ages 18 and older, while Pfizer received emergency approval last week for those ages 16 and up.
Vice President Mike Pence, his wife and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams all rolled their sleeves Friday morning and received the recently approved Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on live television.
The vaccinations were administered following a breaking report from top officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the agency is “rapidly working” to approve Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Follow below for the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic. Mobile users click here.
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LIVE UPDATES: Moderna gets the green light: FDA formally grants emergency approval for second coronavirus vacc
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COVID-19 vaccine timeline: When will they be distributed and how?
COVID-19 vaccine timeline: When will they be distributed and how?
With the dark winter months looming, there’s one glimmer of hope in the fight against the COVID-19 crisis.
Two, to be exact.
Vaccine candidates from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and from Moderna have shown to be 95 percent effective in ongoing trials.
The promising results have prompted both drugmakers to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use — with the shots expected to be distributed within 24 hours if given the green light.
But while federal health officials remain optimistic that help is on the way, the availability of vaccines doesn’t equate to an immediate cure to coronavirus.
Here is a realistic timeline of when an effective vaccine could be on tap for all Americans.
When will a vaccine be available?
Millions of doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should be available to certain groups by the end of December, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
“We expect to have about 40 million doses of these two vaccines available for distribution pending FDA authorization — enough to vaccinate about 20 million of our most vulnerable Americans,” Azar said at a Nov. 18 press briefing. “And production of course would continue to ramp up after that.”
Globally, Pfizer has said it could have 50 million doses by year’s end.
A different projection, according to information presented to the National Academy of Medicine in late November, said about 25 million doses could become available in the US in December, 30 million in January and 35 million more in February and March.
The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed has worked with states to determine how many doses they’ll need to cover the populations offered a vaccine first.
Azar said once the FDA gives the green light, millions of doses will be shipped within the first 24 hours.
“So my message is hope and help are on the way,” he said.
Emergency approval from the FDA, however, is not the same as full approval, meaning anyone who gets the shot will receive a “fact sheet” listing the potential benefits and risks as the studies continue, Dr. Marion Gruber told the Associated Press.
How will vaccines be distributed and who will get them first?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will have the final say on who gets first dibs, and Azar has said the initial batch of vaccinations will go to the “most vulnerable Americans” first.
That committee is following guidance from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which advises divvying up the vaccine distribution in phases.
The first phase includes front-line health workers and first responders, people with underlying conditions that put them at high risk of serious illness, and adults age 65 and older living in overcrowded settings, including nursing homes, homeless shelters, prisons, jails and long-term health care facilities.
Phase one makes up about 15 percent of the US population.
Phase two encompasses K-12 teachers, school staff, child care workers, people with underlying conditions that put them at moderately higher risk, public transit workers, those in the food supply system, and those in homeless shelters or group homes, and prison and jail inmates, as well as staffers there. These groups make up about 30 to 35 percent of the population.
Phase three — which covers about 40 to 45 percent of Americans — includes young adults, children and workers in industries such as hotels, banks, higher education, gyms and factories. However, the guidance says immunization of children will depend on safety testing.
All other Americans not included in the first three phases are covered in phase four.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said average, healthy Americans could expect to get their first doses as early as April and through July, he told USA Today.
How much will the vaccines cost?
The federal government, which has a $1.95 billion contract to buy millions of Pfizer-BioNTech doses, as well those from other successful candidates, has promised the shots will be free.
That said, Pfizer-BioNTech has set an initial price at $19.50 a dose, while Moderna, which has a $1.5 billion contract for 100 million doses, will cost taxpayers $25 a dose, Forbes reported.
Two doses three weeks apart are needed for full immunization.
Will a vaccine offer complete protection against COVID-19?
Immunization may keep you from getting severely ill but “won’t necessarily prevent you from getting infected,” Fauci said.
“The issue is that you’re not going to be completely protected against a degree of infection that you might not even notice that you might be able to spread to others,” the top doc said in a virtual chat with the Hastings Center.
“Which is the reason why the message you may have heard me say over the last couple weeks in the media is that getting vaccinated with a highly efficacious vaccine does not mean that you’re going to abandon completely public health measures.”
It will also take time to build up herd immunity, when a large portion of a population becomes immune to a disease, through vaccination — and that’s only if enough people decide to get jabbed.
A poll in August found that 35 percent of respondents said they won’t get a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available.
But if most of the US is vaccinated by summer and fall, Fauci said we can then look toward getting back to normal.
“Then you can start talking about this umbrella or blanket of protection on society that would diminish dramatically the risk of a person being exposed or even being infected,” he told USA Today. “When so many people are protected, that’s when you get into the real herd immunity.”
How long does it typically take to develop a vaccine?
Outside of the backdrop of a deadly pandemic, vaccines typically take more than 10 years to develop, according to the British health charity Wellcome Trust.
The first two to five years is usually dominated by discovery research, which includes the development of up to 100 potential vaccines, according to the charity.
The preclinical phase then takes about two years to complete, in which about 20 vaccine candidates are moved to the next round.
Phase three is when human trials are conducted and could take between 5 and 9 years as scientists figure out if the vaccine is safe, activates an immune response and protects against the disease.
The final phase, which is seeking regulatory review and approval, can typically take about one to two years.
The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is charging along at warp speed, however, scientists also aren’t starting from scratch, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Past research on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) vaccines gave drugmakers a leg-up in determining potential approaches when vaccine development started earlier this year, the medical center said.
In the early twentieth century, it took scientists about 19 years to develop an effective vaccine for yellow fever, Business Insider reported.
The chickenpox vaccine took 28 years to develop and the polio vaccine took six years, according to William Petri, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Virginia, writing in The Conversation.
For the measles vaccine, the virus was first isolated in 1954 but an effective immunization — which treated measles, mumps and rubella — didn’t come out until 1971, according to the History of Vaccines, which is linked on the CDC’s website.
The mumps vaccine — which was developed in four years by pharmaceutical company Merck — was the fastest to be approved for human use, according to the Washington Post.
With Post wires
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COVID-19 vaccine timeline: When will they be distributed and how?
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December 19 coronavirus news
December 19 coronavirus news
Syringes and vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared to be administered to front-line health care workers in Reno, Nevada, on December 17. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Saturday encouraged the public to get educated about Covid-19 vaccines.
“We all have more information on these vaccines, at the point of administering them to the public, than we’ve had for any vaccine in history,” Adams said during a news conference hosted by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Adams said he got vaccinated publicly to help instill trust in Covid-19 vaccines.
“My arm feels fine. It’s a little bit sore, but no more sore than when I had the flu shot. I didn’t have any side effects at all,” Adams said, noting that it is normal for people to experience a low fever, headache or fatigue after receiving the vaccine.
Adams encouraged the public to seek out information about the vaccines.
“It’s okay to have questions. It’s okay to ask questions,” he said. “What is not okay is to let misinformation or mistrust cause you to make a decision which is going to be bad for your health, or your family’s health, or your community’s health.”
“This vaccine is almost 100% certain to prevent you or your loved one from getting severe disease,” Adams added. “It is the way we end this pandemic.”
A large effort: The US is leveraging every bit of authority and power it has to produce Covid-19 vaccines, Adams said.
“I can tell you, with every degree of certainty from being on the Coronavirus Task Force, that we are doing everything we can to produce these vaccines as quickly as possible,” Adams said during a news conference hosted by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Adams said the US is on track to have 20 million vaccine doses by the end of December; 50 million by the end of January and 100 million by the end of February.
“That is half of the adult US population,” Adams noted.
He added that he’s more concerned about vaccine confidence than he is about vaccine supply.
“We’ve got to go from vaccines to vaccinations,” Adams said.
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December 19 coronavirus news
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