Passengers wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19 are seen on an escalator at Orlando International Airport.
Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Images
When the coronavirus pandemic started to sweep around the world in 2020, a number of governments and health authorities appeared to pin their hopes on "herd immunity."
This approach would see the virus spread though society and cause infections, but also provoke an immune response in those who have recovered.
If enough people gained these antibodies say, around 60-70% of the population then the transmission of the virus would gradually decrease, and those who had not yet been infected would be protected by the increasingly small opportunity the virus had to spread.
That was the theory.
In reality, Covid-19 swept through the Asia, Europe and the Americas prompting millions of infections from which millions of people recovered but also hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and deaths. To date globally, the virus has caused over 164 million infections and 3.4 million deaths.
The strategy of targeting herd immunity was quickly abandoned by most countries with some notable exceptions such as Sweden and lockdowns became the primary way of trying to prevent the spread of Covid as vaccines were rapidly developed.
Now we have highly effective vaccines and immunization programs are continuing apace across the world. This has sparked hope that once enough people in populations have been vaccinated, herd immunity could be achieved that is, once enough people are vaccinated, the virus will have nowhere to go and will die out.
But yet again, Covid-19 is proving to be unpredictable, and we still don't know how long protection from vaccines, or natural immunity acquired by previous infection, lasts.
Vaccine hesitancy, the role of children in transmission (young children are not eligible for vaccines) and, most importantly, the emergence of new Covid variants around the world are also unknowns that could also prevent herd immunity, experts warn.
Most of them believe Covid-19 will become endemic like the flu (meaning it will continue to circulate in parts of the population, likely as a seasonal threat) while hoping it will become less dangerous over time.
Epidemiologist LaurenAncelMeyers, director of the University of Texas Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, described herd immunity as "the idea that if we vaccinate enough people around the globe, the virus will have nowhere to spread, and the pandemic will completely fade out."
"Unfortunately, we are very far from that reality on a global scale," she told CNBC.
"The virus continues to spread rapidly on many continents, more contagious variants that can possibly break through immunity are continually emerging, and many countries lag far behind the U.S. in rolling out vaccines."
She noted that even in U.S. cities there are critical pockets of low immunity: "Where I live in Austin, Texas, we estimate that vaccination coverage ranges from under 40% to over 80% depending on which neighborhood you live in. Everywhere, children under age 12 cannot yet get vaccinated. As long as there are pockets of low immunity, this stealthy virus will continue to spread and produce new variants."
Nonetheless, Meyers noted that even if we don't achieve full herd immunity, "vaccines may help us get to a place where Covid-19 is a significantly less lethal threat."
There has been a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about the herd immunity threshold, according to Meyers."Simply speaking, the herd immunity threshold is the fraction of the population that must be immunized before the virus will fade away.But in the real world, it's complicated."
"With emerging variants and pockets of low vaccination coverage, there is no guarantee we'll get there," she said, noting that it's important people realize: "The more people vaccinate, the faster the threat will fade."
"We may never hit herd immunity on a global stage and fully eradicate the virus. But that doesn't mean we won't get back to a sense of normalcy soon. We are already seeing the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations beginning to decline," Meyers added.
After a year, the coronavirus has undergone some significant mutations and a number of variants have become dominant due to their increased transmissibility such as those first detected in the U.K. and South Africa last year.
Now a variant first detected in India in October 2020 is rampaging through the country and beyond. As with previous mutations, experts are investigating whether it is more transmissible (early evidence suggests so), more deadly (early evidence suggests not) and could render Covid vaccines less effective (early evidence suggests not).
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick's Medical School in the U.K., told CNBC that the pursuit of herd immunity was likely unachievable when it comes to Covid-19.
"Pursuing herd immunity in terms of allowing people to be infected and then recover is not great because obviously with Sars-Cov-2 people are getting sick but also, the issue is what is the herd immunity threshold and what proportion of the population would you need to be protected? And that so much depends on the transmissibility of the virus," Young noted.
"We're dealing with variants that have different abilities to spread and I think that's what makes achieving herd immunity, or indeed relying on herd immunity, quite challenging."
He stressed that there were still lots of "unknowns" about Covid-19.
"And I think trying to get herd immunity through vaccination is going to be impossible. Variants and the fact that you don't necessarily get immune protection for life once you're vaccinated makes it more difficult," Young said.
Asked whether there's a possibility that the coronavirus could be eradicated, Young said: "it's not going to happen."
"We're going to have to live with it, like flu, and we just need to get as many people vaccinated in order to stop them getting sick."
In the past 20 years, new coronaviruses have emerged from animals with remarkable regularity. In 2002, SARS-CoV jumped from civets into people. Ten years later, MERS emerged from camels. Then in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 began to spread around the world.
For many scientists, this pattern points to a disturbing trend: Coronavirus outbreaks aren't rare events and will likely occur every decade or so.
Now, scientists are reporting that they have discovered what may be the latest coronavirus to jump from animals into people. And it comes from a surprising source: dogs.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first exploded, Dr. Gregory Gray started to wonder whether there might be other coronaviruses out there already making people sick and threatening to trigger another outbreak.
The problem was that he didn't have a tool to look for them. The test for COVID-19, he says, is extremely limited. It tells whether one particular virus SARS-CoV-2 is present in a person's respiratory tract, and nothing else.
"Diagnostics are very specific. They generally focus on known viruses," says Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Duke University's Global Health Institute.
So he challenged a graduate student in his lab, Leshan Xiu, to make a more powerful test one that would work like a COVID-19 test but could detect all coronaviruses, even the unknown ones.
Xiu not only rose to the challenge, but the tool he created worked better than expected.
In the first batch of samples tested last year, Gray and Xiu found evidence of an entirely new coronavirus associated with pneumonia in hospitalized patients mostly in kids. This virus may be the eighth coronavirus known to cause disease in people, the team reports Thursday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The samples came from patients at a hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia, taken by a collaborator in 2017 and 2018. "These were deep nasal swabs, like doctors collect with the COVID-19 patients," says Gray.
The patients had what looked like regular pneumonia. But in eight out of 301 samples tested, or 2.7%, Xiu and Gray found that the patients' upper respiratory tracts were infected with a new canine coronavirus, i.e., a dog virus.
"That's a pretty high prevalence of a [new] virus," Gray says. "That's remarkable." So remarkable, in fact, that Gray actually thought maybe he and Xiu had made a mistake. Perhaps Xiu's test wasn't working quite right. "You always wonder if there was a problem in the lab," he says.
To find out, he sent the patients' samples over to a world expert on animal coronaviruses at Ohio State University. She was also dubious. "I thought, 'There's something wrong,' " says virologist Anastasia Vlasova. "Canine coronaviruses were not thought to be transmitted to people. It's never been reported before."
Nevertheless, Vlasova went to work. She tried to grow the coronavirus in the lab, using a special solution she knew worked for other dog coronaviruses. Lo and behold, "the virus grew very well," she says.
With a lot of virus on hand, Vlasova could decode its genome. From the virus's gene sequences, she could see that the virus had likely infected cats and pigs at one point. But it likely jumped directly from dogs into people. "The majority of the genome was canine coronavirus," she says.
Then she found a disturbing clue about the virus's future. "We did discover a very, very unique mutation or deletion in the genome," Vlasova says. That specific deletion, she says, isn't present in any other known dog coronaviruses, but it is found somewhere else: in human coronaviruses. "It's a mutation that's very similar to one previously found in the SARS coronavirus and in [versions of] SARS-CoV-2 ... [that appeared] very soon after its introduction into the human population," Vlastova says.
This deletion, she believes, helps the dog virus infect or persist inside humans. And it may be a key step required for coronaviruses to make the jump into people.
"Apparently the deletion is somehow associated with [the virus'] adaptation during this jump from animal to human," she says.
Altogether, this genetic data suggest that Vlasova and her colleagues are catching this new coronavirus early on in its journey in people, while it's still trying to figure out how to infect people efficiently and possibly, before it can spread from person to person and trigger a big outbreak.
"There's no evidence yet of transmission from human to human," says virologist Xuming Zhang at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. But it's not known how these patients became infected with the virus or whether they had direct contact with infected animals.
Zhang has studied coronaviruses for more than 30 years. He thinks it's too early to call this new virus a human pathogen. "As the authors are careful to say in their paper, they have not proven what's called Koch's postulates," he says. That is, Vlasova, Gray and colleagues haven't shown that the new coronavirus causes pneumonia; so far, it has only been associated with the disease.
"To do that, strictly, they need to inject the virus into humans and see if it reproduces the disease," he says. "Of course [for ethical reasons], we cannot do that."
Instead, Zhang says, they can look to see how common the virus is in pneumonia patients around the world and they can test to see whether it makes mice or another animal sick.
Yet Zhang says he wouldn't be surprised if this dog virus is, in fact, a new human pathogen. He thinks that the more scientists look for unknown coronaviruses inside pneumonia patients, the more they are going to find. "I believe there are many animal [coronaviruses] out there that can transmit to humans."
And in order to stop a future coronavirus pandemic, he says, scientists need to do more testing in people and seek out these strange, hidden infections before they become a problem.
Each week, we answer frequently asked questions about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." See an archive of our FAQs here.
I had COVID. Do I need to get the vaccine?
Yes! While natural infection does seem to provide some immunity, studies suggest that it is short term: Protection can wane 90 days post-infection, says Dr. Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine.
We also don't know enough yet about how well natural immunity protects you from variants of the virus, she says.
On the other hand, she says, "currently available vaccines in the United States [from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson] will provide a more robust immunity that lasts a minimum of six months and vaccines to date have shown clinical efficacy against all variants of concern."
There's another compelling reason, says Charlotte Baker, assistant professor of epidemiology at Virginia Tech. "You can get COVID more than once," she says, although the phenomenon is rare. "And some people who early on got COVID and then got it again had much worse outcomes."
The scant research on reinfection has shown mixed outcomes, but a small study from March showed more severe cases among 33 Brazilian health care workers with recurrent COVID, including one fatality.
So, does it matter when I get the shot?
If you've had COVID, wait until you are symptom-free and have completed the 10-day isolation period recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Out of respect for the health care workers volunteering to give you your inoculation, it's important not to go while you have an active case of COVID, Baker says.
"If you currently have COVID, you can pass COVID to health workers or other people who are giving vaccines or are in the same space," she says. "That's the biggest concern."
But don't hesitate after that isolation period, Weatherhead and Baker advise.
To ensure there are no gaps in your immunity, schedule your appointment within 90 days of your illness, Weatherhead says. When vaccines were scarce at the beginning of the year, the CDC said it was OK for people who had been sick with COVID to wait up to 90 days to get the shot, since the risk of reinfection is very low during those three months post-illness. Now, with widespread availability of the vaccine, most people don't need to wait until the end of that period.
If you received monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma as a COVID treatment, however, the CDC currently recommends waiting 90 days before getting a COVID-19 vaccine, to reduce any risk of the treatments interfering with the vaccine.
The vaccine should give you the same protection that it offers to those who haven't had COVID, and cover you from variants you weren't infected with, Baker says in addition to lasting longer. Natural immunity appears to only protect you from the version of COVID that you had.
The bottom line: "You getting COVID-19 may help protect a little for a little while, but the vaccine helps protect a lot for a longer time," Baker says.
I've heard that side effects from the shot can be worse for people who had COVID.
This may be true, though evidence is light so far. Baker has some personal experience with this:
"My brother had COVID really early on, and he and I got the vaccine the same day," she says. "My symptoms subsided in a day or so, but his lasted a week. But we've also seen some who got the vaccine after being sick and they were good to go."
Side effects might not be fun, but Baker says you can rest assured that they are a normal response (and usually subside quickly!). Data from clinical trials have shown that it is safe to receive the vaccine after natural infection, Weatherhead says.
And preliminary research has shown strong immune responses in people who have had COVID and the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. So there's a chance that bigger, future studies could show that people who had the disease need just one shot of an mRNA vaccine because their natural infection likely jump-started their immune response. But remember, since studies haven't yet confirmed that, for now you need to get both shots to ensure you have full protection.
Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a freelance health journalist in Minneapolis. She's written about COVID-19 for many publications, including Medscape, Kaiser Health News, Science News for Students and The Washington Post. More at sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com. On Twitter: @milepostmedia
Coronavirus: Canada catches up to US in giving out first doses of vaccine - as it happened Financial Times
Good evening. Im Kiera Feldman, and its Friday, May 21. Heres the latest on whats happening with the coronavirus, plus ways to spend your weekend and a look at some of the weeks best stories.
Weve had June 15 marked on our calendars as the day California would reopen its economy, but we didnt have many details about what exactly that would mean. That even goes for those of us whove been following things like its their j-o-b.
Well, everything just got a little less TBD. Officials on Friday unveiled eagerly anticipated guidelines for a world that will look nothing like the California of the last year-plus.
Businesses will be able to serve customers without any limits on capacity or requirements for physical distancing. People who are fully vaccinated will no longer need to wear masks in most situations.
The state isnt considering an official vaccine passport system to verify immunization status, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, Californias health secretary. But businesses and event organizers may decide on their own to require that customers prove theyve either been vaccinated or recently tested negative for the coronavirus.
Big, crowded indoor events will have the most stringent rules under the new plan organizers will need to verify that attendees have been vaccinated or recently tested negative if more than 5,000 people are there.
At outdoor events with more than 10,000 people, the state will recommend, but not require, the same verification. (People who havent been vaccinated or tested recently can still attend, as long as they wear a mask.)
If youre like me and still a bit queasy at the thought of being around 10,000 other people, heres some good news: The data about so-called breakthrough infections after vaccination are looking better and better.
In L.A. County, the chances of becoming infected after youre vaccinated are exceedingly rare. Out of 3.3 million fully vaccinated people, only 933 later tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. Thats just 0.03%.
Among those breakthrough infections, 71 people had to be hospitalized, and 12 later died. Four of them had severely weakened immune systems, Ferrer noted.
We now have mounting proof that these vaccines really work, she said.
California cases, deaths and vaccinations as of 6:12 p.m. Friday:
Track Californias coronavirus spread and vaccination efforts including the latest numbers and how they break down with our graphics.
See the current status of Californias reopening, county by county, with our tracker.
Too blue for school
For communities hit hard by the pandemic, reopening schools involves far more than rearranging desks and opening windows. My colleague Melissa Gomez brings us this story of one school district that opted to stay closed for the remainder of the year because the trauma and loss from COVID-19 were too great.
We cant just pick up where we left off, said Frances Esparza, the superintendent of El Rancho Unified School District serving Pico Rivera. Some of the students in El Rancho lost a parent, a grandparent, and some even lost both in just a few days. The staff of El Rancho Unified have also suffered the losses of family, friends and coworkers.
High school senior Hailey Moreno lost both her father and her grandmother to COVID-19. Even logging into Zoom classes can be an emotionally wrought experience, because thats how she last spoke to her father.
Its hard. You see other kids your age ... you hear from them, and teachers, and its just, their lives seem so normal, she said. Its not. Nothing is normal.
Many students have needed counseling for anxiety, depression, grief and loss, and school aides and teachers will receive training to identify signs of trauma or mental health issues before summer school programs begin.
We need to deal with what has happened, Esparza said.
Guinea pigs for hire
Within the first few months of the pandemic, jobs dried up in South Koreas restaurants, bars and supermarkets. So young people in need of cash there turned to a gig of last resort: enrolling in clinical trials, my colleague Victoria Kim reports.
Paying test subjects for the trouble and risk of swallowing, being injected with or bedaubed with drugs or other medical substances is accepted practice worldwide. In South Korea, though, clinical trials have become an easy hustle for college students, struggling freelancers and the unemployed.
You lie there for two nights, three days and have your blood drawn, staring at your phone, and you make money, said Jeong Hyung-jun, a physician who is policy chair of the Korean Federation of Medical Activist Groups for Health Rights.
But some see the clinical trials as exploitative in a society that has failed to create worthwhile employment. Kim Nam-hee, a clinical professor at the Seoul National University School of Law, said the studies raise ethical questions about whether subjects are truly free to withdraw if they feel unsafe.
Its taking advantage of the subjects physical, economic vulnerability, for minimal compensation, she said. Its the pharmaceutical companies that reap the benefits. Structurally, there is an ethical problem.
A woman wearing a glove as a precaution against the coronavirus holds a vial as she waits in a line at a testing site in Seoul in April.
(Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)
Mission not yet accomplished
California is weeks away from returning to a largely pre-pandemic life, but the mission accomplished vibe overlooks the fact that people of color are still getting left behind, columnist Erika D. Smith reminds us. And once rules about masks, social distancing and capacity limits are relaxed or removed, the gap stands to grow further.
The reason: Nearly two-thirds of Black and Latino Californians still havent been vaccinated, and thats not likely to change very much by June 1, said Dr. Amon Rodgers, an assistant professor at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles.
My concern is that the reopening happens before we get a higher rate of vaccinations in areas like Compton and South L.A., Rodgers said. I dont want this community to be left holding the bag and widening the disparity that we already have.
Like much of California, L.A. County has plenty of vaccine doses. But some people, particularly those without internet access or vehicles, still have a hard time finding a place to get the jab, Smith writes. Plus, many Black and Latino residents of South L.A. dont have a primary care physician.
If youve never had access to care, you cant have a one-on-one conversation with a healthcare provider to answer your questions, explained Dr. Roberto Vargas of Charles R. Drew University.
Mixing up the menu
Across L.A., restaurants are reopening their dining rooms, but the experience isnt necessarily the same as it was before. Many eateries have undertaken significant renovations to adhere to the rules of the yellow tier.
Marianna Caldwell, the sommelier and general manager of Cassia in Santa Monica, recalled the unsatisfying reopening last June, when the Southeast Asian restaurant had to close its doors just a week and a half after it reopened. This time around, the bar-like seafood station has been replaced with sleek, upholstered banquettes.
We wanted to take our time and do it right so that we wont have to shut back down again, she said. And I dont think L.A.s going to shut back down again.
Restaurateurs philosophies about reopening vary as widely as the cuisines. While some appreciated the time the pandemic gave them to reconfigure their menus and decor, others thought long and hard about how to reopen safely without straying from their roots.
That was the case for Mark Echeverria, whose family owns Musso & Frank Grill.
For Mussos, being 102 years old, it wasnt necessarily about us pivoting and trying to make something work; it was more about remaining unchanged, he said.
Patrons enjoy dinner at Cassia as the much loved restaurant reopens its indoor dining room.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Stranded students
Many American college students have spent the pandemic zooming into classes from their childhood bedrooms. International students stuck in their home countries have faced the added hardships of time zone differences that forced them to log on for midnight classes.
Now that the coronavirus is ebbing in the U.S., these students are eager to return to their stateside campuses. But huge barriers are in their way, my colleague Teresa Watanabe reports. International students are panicked that huge backlogs for visa requests, shuttered consulates and bureaucratic rules that limit access to the U.S. may derail their long-awaited return.
UC Berkeley student Ruhi Jha began her college career remotely from her home in New Delhi. Last month, she and her family members contracted and survived COVID-19. The experience was terrifying, but now shes feeling anxious about whether shell be able to get to California in time for the fall term. Berkeley also requires students to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but trying to land an appointment for one in the worlds second most populous country amid a devastating outbreak so far has been frustrating and fruitless.
I dont think Ive ever been in such a stressful situation in my life, she said. There have been quite a few moments of tears, but you just have to stay positive and scrape through whatever life is showing you.
Get outside. Try a hike from our list of the 50 best hikes in L.A. Or get inspiration from South L.A. and turn your yard into a microfarm. And next week, a total lunar eclipse is happening in the early hours of Wednesday, which would be a great time to head to the newly designated dark-sky community of Julian to see the super flower blood moon. Subscribe to The Wild for more on the outdoors.
Watch something great. Our weekend culture watch list includes Mad Max: Fury Road, Jurassic Park, Moana and more at local theaters, pop-ups and drive-ins. And in his Indie Focus newsletters roundup of new movies, Mark Olsen recommends the French film Spring Blossom. Written, directed by and starring 19-year-old Suzanne Lindon, the film tells the story of a teenager who engages in a flirtatious, chaste relationship with a 35-year-old actor. Critics have raved about this coming-of-age narrative that reckons with the French culture of sexualizing teenage girls.
Eat something great. Feast on moles and other Oaxacan food in Koreatown at Guelaguetza, winner of the 2021 Gold Award from The Times. Or savor a 10-course tasting menu at Phenakite, named restaurant of the year by The Times. Bill Addison also recommends his favorite L.A. restaurants for outdoor dining in the latest issue of the Tasting Notes newsletter.
Go online. Heres The Times guide to the internet for when youre looking for information on self-care, feel like learning something new or interesting, or want to expand your entertainment horizons.
USC students participate in commencement exercises at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Members of USCs Class of 2020 finally got to wear their caps and gowns one year after they graduated.
The university held 14 different commencement ceremonies over seven days to celebrate the classes of 2020 and 2021. A total of 21,000 students took part in the ceremonies, which were held outdoors at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the first time in 71 years.
Masked students sat eight feet apart on the field, while spectators were socially distanced in the stands. Photographer Al Seib brought back a series of shots that captured the elation of the collective celebration.
Aleeson Eka, Josephine Nwokedi and Lawrence Rolle, left to right, celebrate their dual degrees in medicine and business.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Resources
Need a vaccine? Sign up for email updates, and make an appointment where you live: City of Los Angeles | Los Angeles County | Kern County | Orange County | Riverside County | San Bernardino County | San Diego County | San Luis Obispo County | Santa Barbara County | Ventura County
Need more vaccine help? Talk to your healthcare provider. Call the states COVID-19 hotline at (833) 422-4255. And consult our county-by-county guides to getting vaccinated.
Practice social distancing using these tips, and wear a mask or two.
Watch for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell. Heres what to look for and when.
Need to get tested? Heres where you can in L.A. County and around California.
Americans are hurting in many ways. We have advice for helping kids cope, resources for people experiencing domestic abuse and a newsletter to help you make ends meet.
Weve answered hundreds of readers questions. Explore them in our archive here.
For our most up-to-date coverage, visit our homepage and our Health section, get our breaking news alerts, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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Gov. Greg Abbott told lawmakers Thursday evening that he would place the allocation of nearly $16 billion in federal funds for COVID-19 recovery on their plate during a special session in the fall.
Abbott already planned to call a special session later in the year for the Legislature to do its decennial redrawing of Texas political maps, which was delayed because of the Trump administration's handling of the census. But the allocation of the federal COVID-19 relief funds adds another item to their to-do list and allows the Legislature to participate in the administration of those funds.
House members were notified of the plan in an email Thursday evening. In a statement to The Texas Tribune, Abbott congratulated lawmakers for crafting a conservative and balanced budget that will secure a more prosperous future for Texas that keeps government spending under control.
As everybody knows, I will be calling a special session for redistricting in the fall, and have committed to Lt. Governor [Dan] Patrick, Speaker [Dade] Phelan, Chairs [Jane] Nelson and [Greg] Bonnen, and Vice Chairs [Eddie] Lucio and [Mary] Gonzalez that I will place the allocation of the nearly $16 billion in Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Relief federal funds on the same special call so the entire legislature can participate in the allocation process in a way that best serves all Texans, the statement said.
Lawmakers from both the left and the right had criticized Abbotts hold over federal coronavirus relief funds while the Legislature was not in session.
In their version of the $250 billion budget, House lawmakers had added a key provision to rein in the governor's spending power and ensure that the Legislature would participate in decisions over how to spend federal relief money. An amendment by Rep. Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, which would have barred spending any federal relief funds without the approval of the Legislature, was approved 147-0.
But in a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget, that amendment had was stripped, leading to grumblings from House lawmakers about forcing a potential special session. The only bill the Legislature is legally obligated to pass every two years is the budget.
The Morrison amendment, voted unanimously out of the house, allowing the entire legislature to decide how federal stimulus money would be used through out the state was stripped in the budget reconciliation with the Senate," Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, wrote on Twitter. "The disrespect shown will put us in a special session."
By announcing that legislators will have some power over nearly $16 billion in federal relief funds in the fall, Abbott could stave off criticism that he is consolidating spending power in his office, in contradiction to the state constitution's mandate that the legislative branch control the state's purse.
But outside of that chunk of federal money, Abbott will still have the power to spend billions of dollars in unspent federal aid between now and a special session in the fall.
TAIPEI, Taiwan Closed schools and restaurants offering takeout only. Lines around the block at testing sites. Politicians on television urging the public to stay calm.
If the scenes around Taiwan this week have a distinctly early pandemic feel, it is because the coronavirus is only now washing up on the islands shores in force. A crush of new infections has brought a swift end to the Covid-free normality that residents had been enjoying for more than a year.
By shutting its borders early and requiring two-week quarantines of nearly everyone who arrives from overseas, Taiwan had been managing to keep life on the island mostly unfettered. But all that changed after enough infections slipped past those high walls to cause community outbreaks.
For most of the past week, the government has ordered residents to stay home whenever possible and to wear masks outdoors, though it has not declared a total lockdown. Local authorities are ramping up rapid testing, though some health experts worry that too few tests are being done to stay ahead of the viruss spread.
Taiwans latest numbers between 200 and 350 new infections a day for the past several days, and a few deaths are still low by the standards of the hardest-hit countries. On Thursday, it reported 286 new local infections. But the uptick has jolted a population that, until last Saturday, had recorded only 1,290 Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths during the entire pandemic.
Adding to the concern: Only around 1 percent of the islands 23.5 million residents have been vaccinated against the virus so far.
This day was bound to come sooner or later, said Daniel Fu-chang Tsai, a professor at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine. The slow pace of immunizations combined with more transmissible variants to create a perfect window, Professor Tsai said, for the island to experience a flare-up.
It did not help, he said, that more people had been leaving their masks at home and abandoning social distancing.
Its like Swiss cheese, Professor Tsai said. There were a few holes in the front and a big hole in the back. But this time, the blade happened to pierce straight through.
Before this month, Taiwan had spent the bulk of the pandemic happily shielded from its worst ravages.
Eight months passed last year without a single case of community transmission until an infection in December snapped the streak. Even after that, local infections cropped up only sporadically for months.
Then the tide shifted gradually, then suddenly.
On April 14, the government began allowing crew members for Taiwanese airlines to quarantine at home for just three days after arriving on long-haul flights, down from the previous requirement of five days.
A week later, China Airlines, Taiwans flag carrier, told the government that one of its pilots had tested positive in Australia. Health officials began expanding testing for airline workers. Soon, more pilots and their family members were testing positive, as were employees at a quarantine hotel.
May 21, 2021, 7:01 p.m. ET
On May 10, a pilot who had been in the United States tested positive after completing his three-day quarantine, but not before he had visited a pub and a restaurant in Taipei.
All China Airlines crew members were ordered into rolling 14-day home quarantines. But it was probably too late. A cluster of infections began to emerge among workers and patrons at so-called hostess bars in Taipeis Wanhua District.
By the end of the week, daily case numbers had soared into the triple digits.
So far, the search for new infections has been concentrated in the populous cities of Taipei and New Taipei, where more than 1,600 people can receive rapid testing each day. Hospitals are also providing slower testing services.
Dr. Chiang Kuan-yu, 37, a physician at Taipei City Hospital, went to Wanhua District on Monday to help run a testing site there. He said there had been big crowds over the weekend, when the case numbers first started to rise. Some people had to wait an extra day to get tested.
Now there are more resources for testing, so we can keep up better, Dr. Chiang said.
Officials are trying to use test centers efficiently by testing only those who are showing symptoms or may have come in contact with infected people.
Chen Shih-chung, Taiwans health minister and head of its Central Epidemic Command Center, has urged those with no Covid-19 symptoms and no history of contact to not even come to testing sites, lest they become infected there.
This only will slow down our search for possible spreaders, Mr. Chen said in a news briefing. Dont go there thinking, Oh, maybe Im infected, maybe its best that I get tested. You absolutely must not come.
But Dr. Wang Jen-hsien, an infectious disease specialist atChina Medical University Hospital in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung, called this an excessively frugal approach. He urged the government to consider locking down Wanhua District and testing all residents.
Before, Taiwan was a safe society. If you tested randomly back then, of course you would endanger public health, Dr. Wang said. But now if its a high-risk zone, then you cant do things this way. Your way of thinking has to change.
Taiwan received its first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in early March, and it has since been gradually immunizing health workers and other priority groups. Officials say doses of the Moderna vaccine will arrive soon. Several Taiwanese companies are also developing vaccines.
Taiwanese authorities began working with domestic vaccine producers in January 2020, after the coronaviruss genetic sequence was made available and before the Chinese city of Wuhan went into lockdown.
Taiwan got started extremely early, said Dr. Ho Mei-shang, a research fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Academia Sinica in Taipei who was involved with the governments vaccine efforts. We said at the time, Whatever the vaccine ends up being, we want to make it ourselves as quickly as possible.
But Taiwans insistence on developing and producing its own immunizations may have made officials less quick to snap up overseas vaccines when those started becoming available, Dr. Ho said.
And then, she said, by the beginning of this year, when the pandemic was so severe in so many countries, we just said well wait a little.
Even after the AstraZeneca vaccine first became available in Taiwan, the low case count meant many people felt no urgent need to get immunized.
Still, Dr. Ho said she was heartened to see how quickly people in Taiwan were adjusting to the new restrictions on daily life, even after such a carefree past year.
Recently, she went for a run at 10 p.m. and forgot to wear her mask at first. But she noticed that even at that hour, everyone else who was out walking and exercising was masked up.
This is a state of affairs, she said, that really sets Taiwan apart.
by: Char'Nese Turner, Nexstar Media Wire
US actor Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson arrive for the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 9, 2020. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
(NewsNation Now) Actress Salma Hayek recently revealed that she had a near-fatal bout with COVID-19 last year.
Hayek told Variety she spent one seven-week period isolated in a room and had to be put on oxygen. She says she spent much of the year recovering at home in London.
Hayek joins a list of celebrities who have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic.
Heres a short list ofstars who also contracted COVID-19.
At the start of the pandemic the famed actor announced via Twitter that he and his wife, actress and singer Rita Wilson, contracted coronavirus in Australia. After recovering from the virus the couple announced that they volunteered to donate blood and plasma toward a COVID-19 vaccine.
Last March the actor announced he had tested positive for coronavirus in an Instagram. He also donated plasma after recovering from the virus.
The actor announced his coronavirus diagnosis via Twitter on March 16, 2020. Elba said he was asymptomatic. His wife, Sabrina Dhowre, later contracted the virus after choosing not to quarantine away from her husband.
The ESPN reporter contracted the virus in March 2020. Burke said her symptoms were extensive and she could not be out of bed for more than five minutes.
The singer and her three-year-old son tested positive for the virus last year after experiencing symptoms. This is going to sound crazy, but we had COVID last year, very early in March, and it was really, really bad and I rewrote my will,she said.
The actress wrote said via Instagram that she battled the virus for 21 days. After recovering, she said she still experienced lingering symptoms that lead to a diagnosis of clinical adrenal insufficiency and chronic migraine, which she says she did not have prior to contracting coronavirus.
The actress said she tested positive for the coronavirus in April 2020.
I had never been this kind of sick. Everything hurt. Loss of smell. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldnt breathe. I couldnt keep food in me. I lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks, Milano wrote on Instagram. I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying. I will be donating my plasma with hopes that I might save a life.
Johnson, his wife, and their two young daughters tested positive for the coronaviruslast year.
I could tell you that this has been one of the most challenging and difficult things we have ever had to endure as a family, and for me, too, personally as well,he said in an Instagram video. I wish it was only me who tested positive, but it wasnt, it was my entire family, so this one was a real kick in the gut.
Stars like Hamiltons Nick Cordero, Big Angstar Linda Torres, actress Carol Sutton, Julie Bennett, and Tom Dempsey have died of complications with COVID-19.
The latest:
Some provinces are taking tentative steps toward reopening amid a promising declinein COVID-19 cases, while one hasasked for additional support from the federal governmentas Canadians head into their second May long weekend of the pandemic.
In Ontario,outdoor recreational facilitieswill reopenwith some restrictions on Saturday as outdoor gatherings of up to five people will be allowed again.The province made the announcement Thursday as itunveiled a three-step reopening planthat will lift public health restrictions based on vaccination rates and other health indicators starting in mid-June.
As well, people aged 12 and up in the province will be eligible to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointmentas of 8 a.m. ET on Sunday through the provincial booking system and call centreas well as at select pharmacies, according to a news release issued Friday evening.
The plan comes ashealth officials say the province's control over the pandemic is improving due to current health measures.The current stay-at-home order will remain in place until June 2, with the exception of thosenewly announced changes to some outdoor activities.
WATCH |Ontario announcesstaged reopening plan:
InManitoba, meanwhile, PremierBrian Pallistersaid he spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday morning and asked for up to 50 critical care nurses and 20 respiratory therapists to help fight rising COVID-19 numbers.
Pallister is also seeking up to 50 contact tracers from Statistics Canada. The provinceis in the grip of the third wave of the pandemic and is seeing record numbers of new cases and people in intensive care.
Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, who spoke separately with Trudeau, said he is disappointed with the provincial government's pandemic response to date. "Every week [the government is]reacting to rising case counts, when doctors and many in our community, myself included, have said we need strong proactive measures," Bowman said.
WATCH |Winnipeg mayor calls for help for city's overwhelmed ICUs:
The mayor reiterated calls to increase fines for people who break public health orders andsaid non-essential retail businesses should be closed. Stores are currently allowed to remain open at 10 per cent capacity.
Provincial health officials said the increase in hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care has meant five COVID-19 patients were transferred to hospitals in Ontario this week.
Alberta,which is seeing an overall decline in COVID-19 case numbers and set anew daily high for the number ofvaccine doses administered on Thursday, will welcome back all K-12 students to classrooms next week, except those in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
At-home learning for schools in Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, will beextended for another week because case numbers there have not trendeddown at the same levels as other regions, according to the province.
Even with case numbers declining, it's critical people stayasclose to home as possible this weekend, Alberta'schief medical officer of healthsaid Thursday at a news conference.
"We are gaining momentum, but it is fragile and we cannot afford to take this weekend off from following the rules," Dr. Deena Hinshaw said as she urged residents toavoid in-person interactions with people outside theirhousehold, especially indoors, and avoid non-essential travel.
While Alberta's students are headed back to class,Nova Scotia is sticking withonline learning for the rest of the school year following a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
The province's chief medical officer of healthsaid this week thatthe upcoming Victoria Day long weekend will have to be a quiet one similar to last year.
"The variants make this a very different and difficult situation right now," said Dr. Robert Strang.
Provincial park campgrounds are closedand private campgrounds maybe open only for seasonal campers. People can go to their cottage or seasonal campsite outside their community, butonly if they are staying there for the next few months.
- From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 6:35p.m. ET
As of 6:15p.m. ET on Friday, Canada had reported 1,352,121confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 57,970considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 25,162.
WATCH | Many Canadians stuck in limbo over 2nd vaccine dose:
As of Thursday, Canada has vaccinated a larger share of its population with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine than the United States. Statistics from Our World in Datashow that 48.52 per cent of Canada's population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of May 20, compared to 47.89 per cent of the U.S. population.
However, the U.S. has fully vaccinated 37.86per cent of its total population as of May 20, compared to 4.05 per cent of Canada's population, according to Our World in Data.
Nova Scotiareported 84 new COVID-19 cases and two related deaths onFriday.New Brunswick reported 15 new COVID-19 cases, while chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell announced that a second person in the provincehas died from a rare blood clot associated with the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine.
Newfoundland and Labrador reported10 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, whilePrince Edward Islandreported one new case.
Quebec reported752 new cases and ninenew deaths.Thegovernment is making a push to vaccinate people between the ages of 12 and 17, in time for a return to school under normal conditions next fall.
WATCH |Musicians perform at Quebec vaccination clinics:
Ontarioreported1,890 new cases and27 new deaths on Friday. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 continue to decline, with 1,265 in hospitalsacross the province, including715 in the ICU, according to provincial data.
Manitobareported594 new COVID-19 cases and three related deaths on Friday. This comes one day after chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussinannounced thatManitobans will beprohibitedfrom gathering outdoors with people from outside their householdand that only one person per household will be permitted to enter a business at a given time.
Saskatchewanreported 173 new cases of COVID-19 and two related deaths on Friday.
In the North, Nunavut on Friday reported onenew caseof COVID-19.
Albertarecorded 732 new COVID-19 cases and two related deaths on Friday, whileBritish Columbia recorded 420 new cases and six related deaths.
WATCH | COVID-19 restrictions rekindleCanadian NHL rivalries:
- From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 6:35p.m. ET
As of Friday evening, more than 165.7million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, a trackingdashboard from U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University said. The reported global death toll stood at more than 3.4 million.
Pfizer and BioNTech pledged on Friday to deliver onebillion doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to poorer nations this year and another onebillion next year,Pfizer's bosstold a global health summit on Friday.
Meanwhile, the vaccines alliance Gavi has signed an agreement to buy 200 million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a boost to the UN-backed initiative known as COVAX to distribute vaccines to poor countries.
WATCH |Vaccine makers pledgebillions of COVID shots to developing world:
In theAsia-Pacificregion,India's confirmed coronavirus countsremained below record levels in the last 24 hours, but authorities are worried about a fungal infection that attacks those with weak immune systems. Doctors suspect that the sudden surge in mucormycosis, or "black fungus" infection, may be linked to the use of steroids to treat COVID-19. It can result in breathing problems and coughing blood.
India reported 4,209 COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours and 259,591 new confirmed cases. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.
Taiwan reported 312 new confirmed cases on Friday as part of its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says most of the cases have a clear source, but 72 of the new ones were not apparently linked to the previous infections.
In theAmericas,Argentina will tighten lockdown measures to combat a severe second wave, as daily cases and deaths have hit new highs over the last week.
InEurope,Spain is lifting its restrictions on travellers from the United Kingdom beginning Monday, saying British tourists play a key role in the Spanish economy. Spanish authorities published the rule change in the government gazette Friday. Restrictions on travel from Japan were also lifted.
InAfrica,Zimbabwe's vice-president has announced the government is imposing a two-week lockdown on the central city of Kwekwe because the COVID-19 variant dominant in India has been detected there.
Kenya's health ministry said it is in talks with vaccine manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson as it seeks alternatives to the AstraZeneca shot after shipment delays of the drug from India.
In theMiddle East,U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech SE said on Thursday they would supply Turkey with 60 million additional doses of their COVID-19 vaccine. The latest agreement also includes an option for 30 million extra doses, which would bring the total number of doses to be supplied to Turkey this year to 120 million, the drugmakers said in a joint statement.
-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 6:35p.m. ET
The Oregon Health Authority on Thursday reported five COVID-19 deaths and 603 coronavirus cases.
Oregons pace of vaccinations has slowed for the past month and Gov. Kate Brown appears poised to launch a new incentive program Friday.
State officials have kept watch of incentives offered by other states, including $1 million weekly lotteries in Ohio, and Brown will hold a news conference at noon. Shell be joined by an official from the Oregon Lottery.
Vaccines: Oregon reported 37,228 newly administered doses, which includes 20,028 Wednesday and the remainder from previous days.
Where the new cases are by county: Baker (1), Benton (6), Clackamas (73), Clatsop (3), Columbia (7), Coos (10), Crook (8), Curry (1), Deschutes (42), Douglas (25), Harney (7), Hood River (1), Jackson (19), Jefferson (5), Josephine (18), Klamath (15), Lane (36), Lincoln (2), Linn (46), Malheur (4), Marion (51), Morrow (3), Multnomah (90), Polk (9), Umatilla (24), Union (1), Wasco (5), Washington (74) and Yamhill (17).
Who died: Oregons 2,602nd death linked to COVID-19 is an 88-year-old Benton County woman who tested positive May 4 and died May 15 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.
The 2,603rd fatality is a 64-year-old Klamath County man who tested positive April 22 and died May 18 at Sky Lakes Medical Center.
Oregons 2,604th death is a 66-year-old Douglas County woman who tested positive April 20 and died May 18 at Mercy Medical Center.
The 2,605th fatality is a 74-year-old Baker County man who tested positive May 3 and died May 15 at St. Lukes Boise Medical Center in Boise.
Oregons 2,606th death is a 74-year-old Klamath County man who tested positive May 8 and died May 17 at Sky Lakes Medical Center.
Each person had underlying health conditions or state officials were determining if underlying conditions were present.
Hospitalizations: 301 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are hospitalized, down five from Wednesday. That includes 77 people in intensive care, down one from Wednesday.
Since it began: Oregon has reported 197,356 confirmed or presumed infections and 2,606 deaths, among the lowest per capita numbers in the nation. To date, the state has reported 3,650,737 vaccine doses administered, fully vaccinating 1,656,783 people and partially vaccinating 457,797 people.
To see more data and trends, visit https://projects.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/
-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt
