It was able to bind to not only SARS-CoV-2 but also to coronaviruses that circulate in animals, said Kevin Saunders, director of research at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. What this vaccine does, it takes a small part of the virus, the part of the virus that attaches to the cells, and it presents multiple copies of that to the immune system.
U System of Georgia Adjusts Mask Policy
May 17, 6:20 a.m. The University System of Georgia has adjusted its mask policy, WSBTV News reported.
In the fall, fully vaccinated employees and students will not be required to wear a mask while in class or at other activities.
Those who have not been vaccinated are "strongly encouraged" to continue wearing their masks inside.
-- Scott Jaschik
U of Rochester Develops App to Show Vaccine Status
May 14, 6:18 a.m. The University of Rochester has developed an app for students to demonstrate their confirmed vaccination status.
Students must supply the information to the university and then receive a green check mark to show.
The app is ready for use at commencement events.
-- Scott Jaschik
Penn State's Faculty Senate Calls for Mandatory Vaccines
May 13, 6:10 a.m. The Faculty Senate of Pennsylvania State University has voted -- 113 to 31 -- to require students and employees to be vaccinated by the fall, WTAJ News reported.
The vote is not binding on the administration. Provost Nicholas Jones said officials are currently working on incentives to get vaccinated.
So for students, were looking at opportunities to provide discounts at Penn State Eats and the bookstore. Were looking for drawings for resident hall students for free housing, upgraded meal plans, pizza parties, concert tickets, gift cards. For commuter students, drawings for meal plans, pizza parties, bakery gift boxes, snack boxes, concert tickets, gift cards, he said.
-- Scott Jaschik
U of Richmond Eases Restrictions
May 12, 6:16 a.m. The University of Richmond is moving from orange to yellow in its restrictions on campus Saturday, WRIC News reported.
Among the rules changes:
-- Scott Jaschik
UMass Faces Threat Over Suspension of Maskless Students
May 11, 6:13 a.m. The parents of three University of Massachusetts at Amherst students who were suspended for attending a party without face masks in March are threatening the university with lawyers, The Boston Herald reported.
The students lost $16,000 in tuition and can't return for two semesters. The students were caught when someone shared a picture of them with administrators.
Its ugly to start this culture of ratting. The picture is all they have and their heels are dug in deep, one of the fathers said. The UMass administration is so uninterested in compassion or reaching a reasonable solution, he added. This has been a nightmare.
A university spokesman said, "During the weekend of March6-7, more than 10 UMass Amherst students were suspended for participation at large and small parties. This was during a time when the campus was operating at elevated risk during the pandemic and had just emerged from severe high risk restrictions due to a surge in positive COVID-19 cases."
-- Scott Jaschik
Michigan Faculty Petition for Mandatory Vaccines
May 11, 5:59 a.m. Hundreds of University of Michigan faculty members have signed a petition calling the university's vaccine plan nonsensical, MLive reported.
The university is requiring only students living on campus -- about one-third of students -- to be vaccinated. For the remainder, the university is only recommending vaccination.
Michigan should require vaccines of all students and faculty members, the petition says. Vaccines will also allow on-campus students and faculty to resume more fully the in-person interactions that are critical to academic success. We call for this mandate to go in effect now to give students, their families and our employees ample time to make plans to be vaccinated prior to the start of the fall term, says the petition.
Rick Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the university, said the petition has not yet been presented to the university. Encouragement may be more effective than a mandate to achieve the goal of maximizing vaccinations against COVID-19 in the months ahead, he said.
-- Scott Jaschik
Florida State Changes Face Mask Guidance
May 10, 6:12 a.m. Florida State University has changed its guidance on face masks. It now "recommends," but no longer requires, them to be worn indoors.
"This represents a shift from the previous face-covering requirement and reflects our substantial efforts to vaccinate the university community, along with a low number of COVID-19 cases on campus," the university announced.
-- Scott Jaschik
Rowan Offers Incentives to Get Vaccinated
May 7, 6:15 a.m. Rowan University has announced a vaccine requirement for students who live or study on campus, and some incentives for getting the vaccine, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Our message today is simple. We believe the path to normalcy is through widespread vaccination and we want our entire community to commit to reaching the goal of widespread vaccination, Rowan president Ali A. Houshmand said in a letter. If we work together, we can reach this goal and offer the Rowan University experience that our students and employees deserve.
Full-time students who provide proof of vaccination will receive a $500 credit on course registration. Students who live on campus will receive a $500 housing credit.
-- Scott Jaschik
Nova Southeastern Drops Vaccine Requirement
May 6, 9:06 a.m. Nova Southeastern University announced on April1 that it would require vaccines for all students and employees this fall.
But shortly after that announcement, Florida passed a law prohibiting such requirements. The university said it would study the law. Now the university is reversing its position.
"Therefore, we are NOT requiring vaccinations for NSU students, faculty, and staff, as was announced back on April1, before the legislation was passed. Nonetheless, with additional safeguards in place, NSU has its best opportunity to return to normalcy this fall," said a letter Wednesday from George L. HanburyII, president of the university.
-- Scott Jaschik
Harvard Will Require Student Vaccinations
May 6, 6:13 a.m. Harvard University announced Wednesday that it will require all students who will be on campus this fall to be vaccinated.
"To reach the high levels of vaccination needed to protect our community, Harvard will require COVID vaccination for all students who will be on campus this fall. As with existing student requirements for other vaccines, exceptions will be provided only for medical or religious reasons. Students should plan to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus for the fall semester, meaning that at least two weeks have passed since the final dose of an FDA-authorized or approved vaccine," said a letter from university leaders.
-- Scott Jaschik
Oregon Disappointed by Parties
May 5, 6:15 a.m. University of Oregon students held large backyard parties where hundreds of students -- without masks -- gathered this weekend, The Register-Guard reported.
The university responded on Twitter: "We are disappointed to see the photo of large gathering of young people at what appears to be an off-campus party involving UO students from over the weekend. The university has worked very hard to educate students about the serious COVID-19 health risks of gathering in groups without masks. This behavior is not representative of the majority of UO students, who we have seen work diligently to follow health guidelines."
Lane County, where the university is located, experienced more COVID-19 cases and elevated its risk level to "extreme."
-- Scott Jaschik
Methodist University Requires COVID-19 Test to Attend Graduation
May 4, 6:10 a.m. Methodist University, in North Carolina, is requiring seniors to be tested for COVID-19 to attend graduation.
President Stanley T. Wearden posted a message on Twitter that said the university had a "legal and a moral obligation" to require the testing. If students test negative for COVID-19 this week, they will receive tickets to attend.
After a successful effort to minimize COVID-19, the university is seeing a "recent spike in cases" following two weekends of off-campus parties "that failed to follow health and safety protocols."
-- Scott Jaschik
Saint Vincent College Shelters in Place
May 3, 6:15 a.m. Citing "a significant increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases on campus," including asymptomatic cases, Saint Vincent College, in Pennsylvania, ordered all classes on Thursday afternoon and Friday to be held remotely.
Students were ordered to stay in their dormitory rooms.
"During the next two days, symptomatic and surveillance testing will take place throughout campus. The results of this testing will dictate the length that this mandate remains in place. Again, it is imperative that we act now to avoid any further spread and keep our campus community safe," said an email to the campus from the Reverend Paul R. Taylor, president of the college.
-- Scott Jaschik
Illinois Will Let Vaccinated Students Skip Testing
April 30, 6:16 a.m. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will let students who are completely vaccinated by August 23 skip the testing against COVID-19 currently required.
Chancellor Robert J. Jones wrote to students that this is "a science-based recommendation." He defined complete vaccination as two weeks after a student has received the final dose.
He added: "Please note that we anticipate that all other COVID-19 guidelines will be in place, including wearing face coverings and practicing social distancing. We will continue to monitor COVID-19 on our campus and be prepared to pivot our approach if necessary. In the future, if we believe the science indicates that vaccinated individuals should continue testing, we will shift and mandate testing even for vaccinated individuals."
-- Scott Jaschik
More Vaccine Requirements
April 29, 6:17 a.m. More colleges are requiring students (and on some campuses, employees, too) to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Among the colleges: Carleton College, Mary Baldwin University, Washington State University and Washington University in St. Louis.
-- Scott Jaschik
More Colleges Will Require Vaccinations
April 28, 6:16 a.m. More colleges are requiring students to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the fall.
Among them are Hamilton College, Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Portland, Willamette University and Virginia Wesleyan University.
In Colorado, Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, expressed support for the idea.
"Vaccines are the gateway to ending this pandemic," Polis said during a news conference. "That is why I expect that most higher education institutions will provide parents and students the peace of mind they want by making vaccines a requirement for next fall, and students want to get vaccinated so they can enjoy the full college experience."
-- Scott Jaschik
Colleges in Northeastern Iowa Won't Require Vaccines
April 27, 6:19 a.m. Colleges in northeastern Iowa do not plan to require their students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, The Telegraph Herald reported
Loras College president Jim Collins said the college is encouraging students to get the vaccines. If you do mandate, then you also risk the potential for lawsuits, he said.
That is a personal health decision, said Kathy Nacos-Burds, vice president of learning and student success at Northeast Iowa Community College. Our role in our college is to educate people and get them to the best resources.
-- Scott Jaschik
Maryland Requires Vaccines for All, Michigan for Students Who Live on Campus
April 26, 6:11 a.m. The University System of Maryland will require all students, faculty members and other employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the fall.
"Im convinced that the risk of doing too little to contain COVID on campus this fall is far greater than the risk of doing too much," said Jay A. Perman, chancellor of the 12-campus system.
The University of Michigan will require vaccines for students who plan to live on campus in the fall.
-- Scott Jaschik
U of California and Cal State Systems to Require Vaccines for All
April 23, 6:20 a.m. The University of California and California State University systems are planning to require all students, faculty members and other employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the fall.
Receiving a vaccine for the virus that causes COVID-19 is a key step people can take to protect themselves, their friends and family, and our campus communities while helping bring the pandemic to an end, said Michael V. Drake, president of the University of California.
Together, the CSU and UC enroll and employ more than one million students and employees across 33 major university campuses, so this is the most comprehensive and consequential university plan for COVID-19 vaccines in the country, said Cal State chancellor Joseph I. Castro.
-- Scott Jaschik
Wayne State to Pay Students $10 to Be Vaccinated
April 22, 6:25 a.m. Wayne State University will pay students $10 if they provide proof of vaccination by May10, The Detroit Free Press reported.
President M. Roy Wilson said he hoped the money would provide an "extra incentive" to get vaccinated.
Colleges are debating the ethics of payments to students for getting vaccinated.
-- Scott Jaschik
CHICAGO Another 71 Illinoisans were reported dead from coronavirus during the weekend.
Though COVID-19 continues to kill dozens of people, new cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations have declined in recent weeks.
That means officials are looking at how to open up with an eye at a full reopening in mid-June. The state and city moved into the Bridge Phrase on Friday, easing up on some business restrictions.
Some of the rule changes under the Bridge Phase:
Read the full rules under the Bridge Phrasehere.
Officials are rushing to vaccinate as many people as possible in Chicago and across the state, as vaccines have been shown to greatly reduce the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. But vaccine demand has fallen sharply.
There could be an uptick in vaccinations now that everyone 12 and older is eligible to get the shots in Illinois, though. City-, county- and state-run sites are administering the shots to people in that age group.
The majority of Chicagoans and Illinoisans are not fully vaccinated, though: Only about 4.8 million people or 37.6 percent of the states 12.7 million people have gotten all their COVID-19 vaccination shots.
Officials are looking at ways to make it easier to get the shots and ease peoples concerns.
The state is helping community groups host vaccine events. Health departments are bringing vaccinations to workplaces, including Downtown office buildings. The city has said itll bring vaccine vans to festivals and other events.
People getting vaccinated is still the best bet for ending the pandemic, reopening businesses and having the world return to normal, officials have said. More people getting vaccinated also means there are fewer chances for variants of COVID-19 to develop and spread, which would endanger people and pose a threat to reopening efforts.
The quickest way for life to return to normal is for more people to get vaccinated, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said at a news conference last week.
The state is requesting fewer vaccine doses from the federal government due to the drop in demand, Gov. JB Pritzker said.
Theres still a high risk for spreading COVID-19 among unvaccinated people.
And people continue to get sick and die from COVID-19. Officials have urged people to take precautions like wearing a mask, staying socially distant and getting vaccinated to ensure theres not another surge and people can stay safe.
RELATED:Heres How You Can Get Vaccinated Against Coronavirus In Chicago
The weekends coronavirus victims included 30 people from Cook County, including a man in his 20s and four people in their 40s.
At least 22,439 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and another 2,356 deaths are probably related to the virus, according to the state.
The state reported 2,761 cases over the weekend. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 1,366,268.
RELATED: A Year Of Loss: COVID-19 Has Killed More Than 4,500 Chicagoans. For These Families, Life Will Never Be The Same
Across Illinois, 66,728 vaccine doses are being administered per day, based on a seven-day rolling average. Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 10,375,588 vaccine doses of the 12,893,335 provided to them.
City data shows 2,242,967 doses of vaccine have been administered to Chicagoans in the city, and 2,392,697 doses have been administered in the city overall. About 48 percent of all Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot, while 37.5 percent have completed their vaccination. Among Chicagoans 65 and older, about 68.6 percent have gotten at least one dose, while 59 percent have finished their vaccination.
Illinois seven-day positivity fell to 2.4 percent Sunday with 52,013 tests reported. It was at 2.5 percent Friday. The figure represents the percentage of people testing positive among recent tests.
Illinois seven-day test positivity rate, which measures the percentage of tests that were positive, fell to 2.9 percent Sunday. It was at 3.1 percent Friday.
As of Saturday night, 1,581 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Illinois, including 404 people in the ICU and 218 people using ventilators.
In Chicago, 18 deaths and 517 confirmed cases were reported since Friday. There have been at least 5,281 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago and 281,427 confirmed cases, according to state data.
The city is seeing an average of seven deaths per day, increased from six per day the week prior.
An average of 323 confirmed cases are being reported per day, a 29 percent decrease from the previous week. At the same time, testing has fallen 9 percent since a week ago.
The citys seven-day positivity rate is at 3.4 percent, down from 4.2 percent the week before.
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A girl and her father wear face masks while they push their bikes last summer in Hermosa Beach in the Los Angeles area. There aren't yet coronavirus vaccines approved in the U.S. for kids under 12 which means they should keep masking, according to the CDC. Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A girl and her father wear face masks while they push their bikes last summer in Hermosa Beach in the Los Angeles area. There aren't yet coronavirus vaccines approved in the U.S. for kids under 12 which means they should keep masking, according to the CDC.
When the CDC announced on Thursday that fully vaccinated people can safely take off their masks in most settings, one group that did not necessarily breathe a sigh of relief was the parents of young children.
Some noted that the CDC's new guidance does not have any specific advice for vaccinated parents with unvaccinated kids in their households.
So we dug into the current guidance for kids and parents and talked with infectious diseases expert Dr. Emily Landon about the risks and how her family is handling this complicated limbo.
What are the COVID-19 risks for kids?
While children and adolescents who get infected by the coronavirus tend to have less severe cases of COVID-19, they can get sick and they can spread the virus to others. And some children have developed serious complications from the disease, including a rare but serious medical condition associated with COVID-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
There are also increasing concerns about persistent, long-term effects of the viral infection such as fatigue, respiratory issues and stomach problems for some children who get COVID-19.
So what's the mask guidance now for adolescents aged 12 and up?
As of this week, the Pfizer vaccine is available to people age 12 and up. (The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are currently approved only for those 18 and older.) That means kids age 12 to 15 who get their first Pfizer vaccine dose now will be fully vaccinated in about five weeks two weeks after they receive their second dose.
Once they are fully vaccinated, the CDC says it's safe for them to remove their masks in most settings, just like fully vaccinated adults. But state and local laws apply, as do school and business policies. And masks will still be required for all on buses, trains and planes, and at stations and airports.
What about kids under 12?
There aren't any vaccines currently approved for their use in the U.S. which means the younger set needs to keep masking for the time being.
The CDC says all unvaccinated people age 2 and older "should wear masks in public settings and when around people who don't live in their household."
Experts at the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend unvaccinated children 2 and older continue to wear masks around others when indoors, especially when they are among at-risk adults such as those who are immunocompromised or over 65.
"We know children over age 2 can safely wear masks to protect themselves and others from transmitting the COVID-19 virus. We've already seen how the masks have helped prevent the spread of respiratory infections within schools, camps and other community settings, particularly when everyone wears them, washes hands and follows other infection control guidance," Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said in a statement.
All three manufacturers of U.S.-authorized vaccines are studying the safety and effectiveness of their vaccines in children, including as young as 6 months.
But it will likely be at least a few more months until there's a vaccine approved for those under 12. Pfizer says it won't be ready to ask for FDA approval for its COVID-19 vaccine in younger kids until September.
I'm fully vaccinated, but my kids aren't. Can I safely take off my mask in most places?
According to the CDC's guidance, the answer is yes.
In its updated guidance for fully vaccinated people, the CDC doesn't list an exception for parents with unvaccinated children in their household. (People with immunocompromising conditions, however, including those taking immunosuppressive medications, should talk to their doctor after they've been vaccinated to discuss what protective measures they might need.)
Dr. Emily Landon, who leads the infection control and prevention efforts at University of Chicago Medicine, says the data supports the idea that fully vaccinated parents of unvaccinated children can safely take off their own masks.
"The vast majority of the data that's coming out and what we're seeing anecdotally on the ground, taking care of patients is that individuals who get COVID after they've been vaccinated, as long as they're not immunocompromised, they get really mild disease and they have such low viral loads that they're not passing it on to their family members," Landon says.
For vaccinated parents, it's OK to remove your masks, Landon says: "As long as everybody in your family, including yourself, are low-risk, it's probably fine for you to have an unmasked lifestyle now."
But she says parents might want to keep wearing a mask when they're out with their kids to set a good example for them.
"Kids often do what they see their parents do. And I know a lot of my close friends who are physicians who have children under the age of 12, and I have a child who's not fully vaccinated yet because he's only 12. And we think it's really important to continue to wear masks, in solidarity with our kids, to help them feel like they're not an outlier and to make sure that we're setting a good example for them," Landon says.
What if my child is immunocompromised?
"You may want to be more careful and make sure that you're not even bringing home asymptomatic COVID," Landon says. "This is going to be a personal decision for parents. But there is nothing wrong with continuing to wear your mask if you want to be continue to take extra precautions against COVID."
And when you're indoors in a crowded environment, you should protect your eyes as well, she says.
Concerned about the spread of an Indian variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the population to exercise a heavy dose of caution as restrictions ease further on Monday, with people allowed to be served indoors in bars and restaurants, attend movie theaters and hug family and friends.
Read: The COVID-19 pandemic isnt over, but the great end point is in site as more than 120 million Americans are fully vaccinated
J.K. Rowling has donated 1 million to help fight coronavirus in India.
The 'Harry Potter' author's Volant Charitable Trust have handed over the sum between two UK-based charities involved in relief work and the money was generated thanks to sales of the 55-year-old writer's latest children's book, 'The Ickabog'.
The author wrote on Twitter: A huge thank you to everyone who bought a copy of The Ickabog. As a result, my charitable trust continues to be able to support those worst affected by the pandemic #COVIDIndia. (sic)"
Humanitarian relief organisation Khalsa Aid said they were "delighted and humbled" to receive a donation.
They tweeted: "Wow! We are delighted & humbled to have received a generous, six-figure donation from @jk_rowling charitable trust, The Volant Charitable Trust (https://volanttrust.org) for our Covid Relief work in India. We are humbled by the support for our humanitarian work. #COVIDIndia (sic)"
The British Asian Trust also received an "incredible contribution" from the Volant Charitable Trust.
They tweeted: "Were delighted to have received a generous, six-figure donation from J.K. Rowlings charitable trust, The Volant Charitable Trust [https://volanttrust.org] for our Oxygen For India Emergency Appeal.
"Thank you so much to The Volant Charitable Trust for an incredible contribution helping us save lives in #India @jk_rowling (sic)"
In response to the British Asian Trust's post, Rowling wrote: "Those who followed the childrens illustration competition for the Ickabog will remember how many superb entries we had from India. Im so happy my trust (thanks to the book buyers!) is able to do this #OxygenForIndia (sic)"
According to the Sunday Times newspaper, it is believed both charities received around 500,000 from the author's organisation.
Last month, J.K. admitted she was "flabbergasted" by those who had bought copies of the book, even though the story had already been published for free, because it meant her charity could help out a lot of people affected by the global health crisis.
She posted: "Thanks to the generosity of everyone who bought a copy of The Ickabog, my charitable trust has now sent out millions of pounds to those affected by the pandemic. Given that the story had already been put out for free, I'm flabbergasted. You're incredible."
Amy Crnecki wasn't hospitalized for COVID-19, but the 38-year-old still can't dance with her daughter without fear of crushing fatigue.
"I just want to be able to play outside with my kids," she said, "and play a game of basketball and not feel winded and feel like, 'I shouldn't have done that.' "
The two Minnesotans, diagnosed with COVID-19 during the same week in November, are part of a poorly understood group of people whose health has suffered long after infection and who could continue to struggle after the pandemic recedes. The number of COVID "long haulers" remains a mystery in a pandemic that otherwise has been one of the most measured, modeled and mapped events in human history.
To date, 7,296 people have died from COVID-19 in Minnesota and 594,427 have tested positive for the coronavirus that causes the disease. That includes 10 deaths and 805 infections that were reported Sunday, May 16. More than 2.7 million people 61.5% of the state's 16 and older population have received at least a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Little is known by comparison about the prevalence of long-term complications from COVID-19. This, in part, is because there is no agreed-upon definition of such cases and no easy methods of tracking them. State health officials said a better understanding is needed to plan for future medical needs. The end of Minnesota's mask-wearing mandate last week and the decline in infections signal a new phase in the pandemic but not the end of its impact.
"We're starting to see that this pandemic is not one and done," said Richard Danila, deputy state epidemiologist. "We're seeing this tail at the end, where this pandemic is really unusual in that it's causing this rather substantial burden on individual people and on the population as a whole."
The Minnesota Department of Health activated an expert panel known as the Long-Term Surveillance for Chronic Disease and Injury Annex, which assesses lingering consequences of emergency or traumatic events. It provided advice following the 2017 gas explosion at Minnehaha Academy amid concerns that bystanders suffered brain trauma from the blast wave.
The group will work with federal authorities and researchers at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic to define the breadth and scope of post-COVID illness in the state.
National and international studies have provided estimates. A report last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association found lingering symptoms eight months later in 10% of Swedish health-care workers who suffered mild COVID-19.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in April that 69% of people sought outpatient care one to six months after milder COVID illnesses that didn't require hospitalizations often for related issues such as shortness of breath.
"Its going to be somewhere between 10 to 30% definitely not a rare thing," said Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn, medical director of Mayo Clinic's COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation Program. "This is something we're going to have to face."
It's easier to understand why someone as deeply injured as Farber might suffer lingering effects.
The retired policeman and former county commissioner from Zimmerman, Minn., didn't think he was that sick until his wife made him go to the emergency room just before Thanksgiving and he learned that his blood oxygen level was critically low.
Isolated at Northland Medical Center in Princeton, Farber feared death as he suffered an episode of shaking and convulsions one day, then struggled with malnutrition amid breathing difficulties. He lost 28 pounds during his first hospital stay.
"I kept just getting more [symptoms]," he said. "It was another new thing and another new thing."
More surprising has been the number of people with lingering problems who were never hospitalized. Vanichkachorn's study last week of the first 100 patients through the Mayo rehab program showed that only 25% had COVID-19 illnesses severe enough to need hospitalization.
Health systems such as M Health Fairview and North Memorial Health responded to the demand with post-COVID rehab programs offering strength and therapy exercises to address chest pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, memory issues and foggy thinking.
Whether long-haul symptoms are caused by the lingering virus or the immune system's overreaction to infection is unclear, and nobody knows which patients will have them, said Dr. Tanya Melnik, a co-director of the M Health Fairview Adult Post-COVID Clinic.
"We don't have enough information to predict who can have it," she said.
The symptoms run from severe to comical, with Melnik recalling a patient who didn't regain her sense of taste and made what became known to her family as "COVID chili" because it was too spicy. Some of M Health's first rehab patients didn't even have positive COVID-19 tests, because tests were so scarce last spring.
The National Institutes of Health in February launched a $1 billion initiative to understand COVID-19 long haul symptoms, which it named Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). The U and Mayo have applied for some of the funding.
The duration of symptoms remains an open question that frustrates patients because they want to know when they will get better, said Jay Desai, the chronic health section manager for the Minnesota Department of Health who is leading the state annex review. "Some of these symptoms may last 30 days. Some of them may last 60 days. Some of them may start after 30 days."
Crnecki, a preschool worker from Savage, said COVID-19 never let up after her infection in November. Her blood oxygen levels were barely above what doctors said would require hospitalization. She isolated herself in her bedroom, where she struggled to eat and sleep amid chest pain and muscle aches. She helped her 8- and 5-year-old children virtually with their homework while they tossed notes of support into her room.
Weeks later, she still couldn't walk up steps without being exhausted even though her blood oxygen levels appeared normal, which made it hard to convince doctors that something was wrong. The M Health rehab validated her symptoms and structured an exercise and strength program to boost her lung function.
She graduated from that three-month program in April but is continuing with therapy activities and took a leave from work. Word comprehension and processing is still slowed when talking, so she practices with word and story problems.
"I did a 5K on my Peloton this last week," she said, "which was huge for me."
RELATED:
Caleb Laurent can relate after nearly dying from a post-COVID illness in December, when the 16-year-old needed an ambulance ride in a blizzard and placement on a ventilator at St. Cloud Hospital to stop his lungs and heart from failing.
The Alexandria teenager suffered one of 84 known cases in Minnesota of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, which involves continued inflammation and damage to organs after COVID-19. The disorder is more clearly diagnosed and separate from other long-haul issues but is part of the broader universe of post-COVID impacts on Minnesota.
Laurent was back at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis last week for a treadmill test to monitor the impact on his heart function. He has regained strength and muscle with five months of rest and recovery. He hopes to return to football and wrestling and his old activities.
"His immune system turned on to fight the COVID but it didn't turn back off," said his father, Greg Laurent. "And it turned on his own organs and himself."
Farber, meanwhile, is getting impatient with his recovery, but has cycled off steroids and physical therapy and walks twice a day with less exhaustion. Seeing neighbors helps overcome the mental anguish from his hospitalizations, when his family couldn't be with him.
Farber cooked Thanksgiving dinner for his family in March to make up for missing the holiday, when he could eat only crackers and gelatin.
"When it's all said and done, it's going to be close to a year to recover," he said. "It's frustrating. I thought summer would be here and I should be better by then, but there is nothing about this disease that is normal. It's a vicious disease."
(c)2021 the Star Tribune (Minneapolis). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Shortness of breath is a condition when a person feels he or she is unable to grasp enough air to breathe normally or let out a normal breath.
Medically, it is referred to as dyspnea or breathlessness. For a person, when shortness of breath occurs, it can feel like they cannot get enough air into their lungs, feel a tugging pain in their chest and induce respiratory issues.
Not just COVID-19, but a lot many medical conditions can trigger shortness of breath, including asthma, chest infection, heart disease or even anxiety. However, when there's an active coronavirus infection spreading in the body, any breathing difficulty becomes a pressing cause of concern. With COVID, breathing difficulties can also escalate quickly and demand medical care.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forever changed our world. We must remember the heavy societal burden this virus has wrought, including lives lost, the significant and debilitating late effects for survivors, and the mental health crisis for survivors, caregivers, and the general population. What are the lasting effects of more than 12 months of isolation, economic downturn, family separation, and, in some cases, forced family quarantine? The world is paying attention and these areas are all topics of intense, ongoing investigation as we grapple with the collective human toll of this unprecedented event in our lifetimes.
As an oncologist, I compare this great effort to rapidly understand the viral epidemiology, prevention, treatment, health disparities, and late effects of infection with the field of cancer discovery. As hematologists-oncologists, our field has always been defined by discovery. We have witnessed huge advances in drug discovery and applied these to cancer treatment.
However, these milestones have taken decades to achieve, and governmental financial investment in the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute can be sidelined depending on presidential or congressional budget priorities. Although COVID-19 discovery and translation have occurred at an incredibly rapid pace, this cancer care provider wonders whether we can take the lessons learned from the pandemic and apply them to our world. What are the lessons that we can glean from this experience? Although much has been written about the new paradigm for rapid drug discovery and translation into tangible clinical use, I want to focus on the other significant lessons that we should take from the pandemic experience.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, incidence of cancer was at 17 million worldwide in 2018 with 9.5 million reported deaths. In contrast, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Center recorded 110 million cases of COVID-19 with 2.44 million reported deaths worldwide as of February 18. Thus, even though the reported COVID-19 cases significantly outnumbered new cancer cases, the cancer death toll remains significantly higher. Do not misunderstand. This statement is not to diminish the horrific impact that COVID-19 has on our population.
However, compared with the pandemic story, which realized unprecedented advances in little more than 12 months, cancer discovery remains comparably slow. Appropriately, the publics emotions concerning COVID-19 are running high and raw. Except for relatively small factions, the public outpouring of support and, frankly, demand for a COVID-19 win has bolstered the rapidity of translatable discovery.
In contrast, while almost everyone has been touched by cancer, public engagement and lobbying efforts have in some ways become white noise. The urgency to stop cancer has always been present, but the general publics sensitivity and involvement in demanding rapid discovery and treatment advances have been mired in special-interest lobbying efforts that have undercut the cancer messaging by creating factions whose own financial interests overshadow the primary issue at hand: the need to curtail the human toll of the disease.
All too often, what the public hears is the ongoing squabbling of siblings, all of whom believe that their needs are most important. When the public tunes out, the lobbyistsfor big pharma, for the insurance industry, for tobaccomove in. What we are forget-ting is that we, the public, are the ultimate lobbyists because we vote. The COVID-19 experience has demonstrated that public opinion, public passion, pressure on lawmakers, and ongoing large-scale public engagement can positively alter the trajectory of treatment gains.
Although governmental COVID-19 messaging has at times been opaque, the absence of diversionary messaging from financially motivated factions has allowed the public to serve as the ultimate lobbyists to demand change and rapid results. Although outliers exist, the majority has made it clear that personal responsibility and accountability of elected officials matter. How did this COVID-19 grassroots, public campaign gain strength, and what are the pointers that we can apply to cancer discovery?
Consider the following:
The pandemic continues to upend life as we know it. But as a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, I can honestly say that even horrible events can translate into some societal wins. Recognize the power that you have in shaping your life and our world.
Two Heads: Billionaire BioNTech cofounders Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Big Pharma had been easing out of the vaccine business for decades. By 2019, the major vaccine makers supplying America had dwindled to a handful of large companiesMerck, Sanofi, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson. Because vaccines are only used once or twiceas opposed to medicines that people take dailythey are not profitable. The scale of vaccination programs also invites class action litigation if something goes awry.
The White House needed a whopping amount of money to coax companies to research and test and then produce hundreds of millions of doses. They initially asked for and Congress rapidly appropriated $10 billion. Ultimately, Operation Warp Speed (OWS)the U.S. governments Covid-19 relief programwould dole out $22 billion to Big Pharma.
The amounts of money were the kinds of sums normally seen in the smaller defense budget line items, but were massive for a public health project$2.5 billion to Moderna, $1.2 billion to AstraZeneca, half a billion dollars to Johnson & Johnson, and $1.6 billion to a small company called Novavax. Only Pfizer opted out of ponying up to the trough at firstit didnt want to devote resources to coordinating with the US government on its work.
In July, Pfizer signed a $1.95 billion deal to sell one hundred million doses of its two-shot vaccine to the United States, enough for fifty million people. It would be the first to reach American arms. The price per double shotabout forty dollarsis comparable to the price per shot of the flu vaccine. By February, the government had ordered three hundred million doses from Moderna, with its first shipment of one hundred million priced at thirty dollars per double-shot dosecheaper than Pfizer partly because the United States had forked over nearly a billion dollars to Moderna research. Modernas CEO has said the price per dose will be higher for retail once the government contracts phase out.
Because the project worked, it may well elude financial investigation.
OWS was staffed at every level by pharmaceutical industry executives and their revolving door of allies in the government. They could, if they wished, keep their investments thanks to a special exemption. Brought on as contractors, they were not subject to federal conflict-of-interest regulations in place for employees. OWS advisers with connections and investments had to agree to assign some of their Covid vaccine earnings to the NIHbut they could wait to do so until after their deaths.
Executives at Moderna and Pfizer cashed in on the vaccine, selling shares timed precisely to clinical trial press releases.
OWS was staffed at every level by pharmaceutical industry executives and their revolving door of allies in the government. They could, if they wished, keep their investments thanks to a special exemption. Brought on as contractors, they were not subject to federal conflict-of-interest regulations in place for employees. OWS advisers with connections and investments had to agree to assign some of their Covid vaccine earnings to the NIHbut they could wait to do so until after their deaths.
Former Big Pharma executive Moncef Slaoui sat on the board of Moderna. Thirteen days after the first massive infusion of taxpayer money into its cofferswhich triggered a jump in the companys stock priceSlaoui was awarded options to buy 18,270 shares in the company, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings first reviewed by Kaiser Health News. Those shares were added to 137,168 options hed accumulated since 2018. He reaped an estimated $8 million when he resigned from the Moderna board.
Among the other known connections between OWS and Big Pharma cash: OWS advisers and Pfizer employees William Erhardt and Rachel Harrigan maintained financial stakes of unknown value in Pfizer, the recipient of a nearly $2 billion HHS contract for one hundred million doses of its vaccine. Richard Whitley, an adviser on the vaccine safety panel, is associated with Gilead, maker of the Covid antiviral agent remdesivir. Adviser Carlo de Notaristefani is connected to Teva, maker of the Trump-approved hydroxychloroquine. Former FDA commissioners Dr. Scott Gottlieb and Dr. Mark McClellan, informally advising the federal response, both have seats on the boards of Covid vaccine developers.
Even more money was raining down on company insiders trading on good-news releases. Executives at Moderna and Pfizer cashed in on the vaccine, selling shares timed precisely to clinical trial press releases.
Timing stock sales like that is neither unusual nor illegal. Columbia Law School economist Joshua Mitts has found that execs in many sectors are up to three times more likely to sell o their company stock on days when their companies announce positive news than on days when negative, neutral, or no news is released.
The Big Shot: Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer
On November 9, the day Pfizer announced its more than 90 percent vaccine efficacy, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold more than half of his holdings62 percent. It was a good day to sellthe positive news jacked stock prices 15 percent. Bourla was among seven Pfizer executives who collectively earned $14 million from stock sales in 2020, according to data provided to the Los Angeles Times by Equilar, an executive compensation and corporate governance data firm.
Not to be outdone, Moderna executives made $287 million from timed stock sales in 2020and kept going. In just a few days in late January and February 2021, Moderna CEO Stphane Bancel sold millions of dollars worth of his stock.
The Trump administrations best and brightest Covid solutionthrow public money at private industry with almost no oversight of the contracting procedurewill stand as one of the most audacious efforts in the administrations free market ideological playbook. The full roster of this pharmaceutical windfall club will probably never be revealed.
The pandemic crisis offered a challenge that government might have used to restructure the shareholder model of for-profit medicine, a model that dates to the 1980s and corporate Americas turn toward putting shareholders above the public good. Instead, taxpayer money flowed to a small group of capitalists with almost no strings attached and little transparency. The contracts are redacted, although Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are pending.
As cities across the nation started vaccinating at the end of 2020, the media sought out and hailed some of the researchers as heroes. And they are heroes. But most researchers would not cash in. The NIHs Barney Graham, whose work on molecular protein manipulation is key to the Moderna vaccine, gets paid a government salary. Moderna execs, besides pocketing nearly a billion dollars, will still charge Americans for its vaccine.
Katalin Karik, a Hungarian biochemist whose research was crucial in developing the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, doesnt hold the patent for her discovery; the University of Pennsylvania does. BioNTech founders Ugur Sahin and zlem Treci, however, have profited significantly. Today the married doctors (top) are billionaires, among Germanys richest people. They sold their company Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2016 for $1.4 billion.
In 2020, the US government spent $18 billion on vaccine research, manufacturing, and logistics and approved two for use at the end of the year: the mRNA-platformed Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The eleven-month concept-to-emergency-approval process set a record in American vaccine history. Nothing else even came close.
Besides the mRNA vaccines, US taxpayers had bet billions on Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, and AstraZeneca, the British company. Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, like the Chinese and Russian vaccine efforts, were making vector vaccinesa newer vaccine model than the attenuated virus model in vogue since the days of the cowpoxusing virus modified so that it can enter cells, but cannot replicate itself. The vector vaccines use viruses that the body is familiar withusually an adenovirus that causes the common coldto deliver genetic information about specific disease into cells.
A year after Covid showed up in Wuhan, 200 vaccines were in trials or already in usea world record in vaccine history.
In February 2021, Johnson & Johnson reported that its single-shot vaccine, made from an adenovirus carrying Covid spike protein DNA, had a 72 percent efficacy rate. AstraZeneca produced a vaccine also based on a manipulated adenovirus that was already in use in the United Kingdom by February, despite a series of clinical trial mishaps. Novavax, the small Maryland-based company that took $1.6 billion from the US government to produce a protein-based vaccine using material from the soap bark tree as an adjuvant, was bringing up the rear, but promised to have one hundred million doses available in the United States by summer.
By late 2020, a year after Covid showed up in Wuhan, 200 vaccines were in trials or already in use, according to the WHOanother world record in vaccine history. Chinas Sinovac was first out of the gate with its inactivated Covid vaccine in June 2020. Another Chinese company, Sinopharm, started tests in the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Brazil during summer and made its first sale to the UAE, which began manufacturing it. By early 2021, the UAE was second in the world (behind Israel) in the percentage of its population that had received a vaccination.
The Chinese vaccine dominated the global market, stepping into a soft power vacuum left by US isolationism and pandemic mishaps. By early 2021, three Chinese vaccines were approved and in use, manufactured by Sinovac, Sinopharm, and CanSinoall either based on the adenovirus model or the attenuated Covid virus. In August, Sinovac announced an agreement to sell forty million doses to Indonesia. In February, Hungary became the first European Union country to approve the Sinopharm vaccine for useafter the European Union faced shortages due to the European Commissions inability to cut a deal quickly with vaccine makers in 2020.
In February 2021, the Russian Ministry of Health reported that a vaccine called Sputnik V, based on the vector platform, had a 91.6 percent efficacy rate. Mexico immediately authorized it for use. Canada, Turkey, and South Korea were all testing their own vaccines, and even Cuba had produced a viable vaccine and was reportedly offering it to tourists. Bharat Biotechs inactivated virus vaccine was approved for emergency use in India. Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of Indiathe worlds largest vaccine-producing factorywas scheduled to manufacture one billion doses of vaccine, mostly for poorer nations.
To be sure, these endeavors did not all meet the standards that Moderna and Pfizer had set. Few in the Western world fully trust official Russian and Chinese numbers about anything. In January 2021, Brazil announced Sinovacs efficacy at 78 percent. A week later, the country revised that to above 50 percentstill high enough to meet WHO goals, but the swing from high to merely adequate efficacy nonetheless gives us pause.
Seven Stories Press
Inevitably, the race to the vaccine took on a nationalistic flavor. In August, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced on national state television that Russias Sputnik V vaccine (named after the USSRs landmark launching of the worlds first artificial satelliteplus a V for vaccine) was quite effective, even though it hadnt made it to a phase three trial. The Brits took to calling the Oxford-developed AstraZeneca shot the English one, and in Germany,
Pfizerwhich received early German fundingwas called the German one with pride.
But the challenge also spawned some intriguing collaborations, suggesting that the virus could inspire the notion of a brotherhood of nations and corporations on the fractious planet. Russia and the United Kingdom, for example, announced they were going to pool their adenovirus vaccines into a single vac- cine, to see if the combination amplified efficacy. GSK, based in Britain, and the French company Sanofi, usually competitors, joined forces, putting their combined Big Pharma financial and manufacturing capacity behind a vaccine. And, in March 2021, the White House brokered a collaboration to manufacture vaccines between Merck and Johnson & Johnson.
The flurry of research and collaboration has even led to scientists not just talking about but being on the verge of testing a pan-coronavirus vaccine made of nanoparticles studded with corona proteins, which would be effective against all coronaviruseseven the one that causes the common cold. Imagine a world without the common cold. Can vanquishing death and taxes be far behind?
Adapted fromVirus by Nina Burleigh,published bySeven Stories Press. 2021by the author.
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