AUSTIN, Texas A highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 variant was unknowingly spreading for months in the United States by October 2020, according to a new study from researchers with The University of Texas at AustinCOVID-19 Modeling Consortium. Scientists first discovered it in early December in the United Kingdom, where the highly contagious and more lethal variant is thought to have originated. The journalEmerging Infectious Diseases, whichhas published an early-release version of the study, provides evidence that the coronavirus variant B117 (501Y) had spread across the globe undetected for months when scientists discovered it.
By the time we learned about the U.K. variant in December, it was already silently spreading across the globe, said Lauren Ancel Meyers, the director of the COVID-19 Modeling Consortium at The University of Texas at Austin and a professor of integrative biology. We estimate that the B117 variant probably arrived in the U.S. by October of 2020, two months before we knew it existed.
Analyzing data from 15 countries, researchers estimated the chance that travelers from the U.K. introduced the variant into 15 countries between Sept. 22 and Dec. 7, 2020. They found that the virus variant had almost certainly arrived in all 15 countries by mid-November. In the U.S., the variant probably had arrived by mid-October.
This study highlights the importance of laboratory surveillance, Meyers said. Rapid and extensive sequencing of virus samples is critical for early detection and tracking of new variants of concern.
In conjunction with the papers publication, consortium members developed a new tool that decision-makers anywhere in the United States can use in planning for genetic sequencing that helps to detect the presence of variants. To help the U.S. expand national surveillance of variants, the new onlinecalculatorindicates the number of virus samples that must be sequenced in order to detect new variants when they first emerge. For example, if the goal is to detect an emerging variant by the time it is causing 1 out of every 1,000 new COVID-19 infections, approximately 3,000 SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens per week need to be sequenced.
Health officials are looking for better ways to manage the unpredictability of this virus and future variants, said Spencer Woody, a postdoctoral fellow at the UT COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. Our newcalculatordetermines how many positive SARS-CoV-2 specimens must be sequenced to ensure that new threats are identified as soon as they start spreading.
He explained that the calculator has a second feature. It also helps labs figure out how quickly they will detect new variants, given their current sequencing capacity.
We created this tool to support federal, state and local health officials in building credible early warning systems for this and future pandemic threats, Meyers said.
More detailed information on the calculator ishere.
In addition to Meyers, authors of the Emerging Infectious Disease paper are Zhanwei Du, Bingyi Yang, Sheikh Taslim Ali, Tim K. Tsang, Songwei Shan, Peng Wu, Eric H.Y. Lau and Benjamin J. Cowling of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control in Hong Kong and Lin Wang of the University of Cambridge.
The research was funded by Hong Kongs Health and Medical Research Fund, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meyersholds the Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professorship at The University of Texas at Austin.
MILWAUKEE (AP) The Milwaukee County Medical Examiners Office says a 14-year-old Milwaukee boy has died of complications caused by the coronavirus.
Its the first reported pediatric death caused by the virus in Milwaukee.
The Medical Examiners Office says the boy also had leukemia and had undergone a bone marrow transplant in 2019.
The boy tested positive for the virus last November.
Statewide, there have been two prior COVID-19 deaths between the ages of 10 and 19, including a high school student in Madison in November, WTMJ-TV reported.
Milwaukee County health officials say they are closely watching an uptick in cases among kids 18 and younger.
Vaccines against COVID-19 are about 90 percent effective at blocking coronavirus infections, real-world studies of health care workers, firefighters, police, teachers and other essential workers suggest.
Even after just one dose of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccines reduced the chance of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2, researchers report March 29 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. We clearly showed in our study that if you were at least 14 days out from your first shot, you had 80 percent protection from infection, says Jeff Burgess, associate dean for research at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The study is part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that the vaccines not only reduce the risk of getting seriously ill with COVID-19, but can prevent catching the virus in the first place.
If you cant get infected, you cant infect anyone else, which means the vaccines can reduce transmission as well as the disease, says Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious diseases researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the study.
That is welcome news coming on the heels of data indicating that cases, hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise again in the United States as states lift mask mandates and open businesses at full capacity.
Right now Im scared, Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said during a White House briefing on March 29, noting the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. She urged people to hang on a little longer and continue to wear masks, social distance and get vaccinated to head off a potential fourth surge of the disease. We have so much to look forward to. So much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope, she said.
Part of the reason for hope comes from the MMWR study. The study is tremendously encouraging and complements other recent studies, Walensky said.
Nearly 4,000 health care workers, first responders and other essential workers in six states took part in the study led by CDC researchers. From December 14 through March 13, the workers submitted weekly nasal swabs for coronavirus testing. Both symptomatic and asymptomatic infection rates fell after vaccination. A small number of vaccinated people in the study still got infected.
Other real-world data collected from health care workers in California and Texas also seem to back up those findings, researchers say in separate reports published March 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the Texas report, 234 of 8,969 nonvaccinated employees at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas tested positive for the coronavirus from December 15 to January 28. Thats 2.61 percent, compared with 1.82 percent (112 of 6,144) of employees that had gotten one shot and 0.05 percent (four of 8,121) of fully vaccinated employees.
In the California report, infections among health care workers also fell with increasing vaccination levels. Only seven infections occurred among 4,167 people who were at least 15 days out from getting their second dose of vaccine. The vaccines prevented health care workers in the study from becoming seriously ill, says study coauthor Francesca Torriani, an infectious diseases physician and hospital epidemiologist at the University of California, San Diego.
Reducing the severity of illnesses will help relieve the burden on hospital systems if there should be a fourth wave, she says. But to really stop transmission of the virus, its important to vaccinate 18- to 30-year-olds. Those are the ones who are right now transmitting the disease. Motivating healthy young people who are less likely to become severely ill in the first place to take the shots could be difficult, Torriani says. Theres not much in it for them, but there is a lot in it for their families, so Im hoping that realization will push young people toward getting vaccinated.
Because some vaccinated people can still get infected, the CDC and other public health agencies have recommended that people who have gotten their shots continue to wear masks in public and take other precautions to avoid spreading the virus.
Data from Israel does suggest that the Pfizer vaccine might block transmission of the virus (SN: 2/12/21). Unvaccinated people produce 2.58 to 4.5 times more virus than vaccinated people do, researchers report March 29 in Nature Medicine. Those data show vaccinated people have a lower viral load and are less likely to pass the coronavirus to others if they do become infected, but the effect is not as strong as might be hoped to truly limit transmission, Kilpatrick says. That reduction in viral load amounts to about an 11 percent decrease in infectiousness, he says. Thats good but youd like to be half as infectious or three-quarters lower infectiousness.
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There is not yet enough data to say for sure that vaccines prevent transmission, Torriani says. There is definitely heavy suggestion, but further studies on viral load are needed.
So are data from everyday citizens. Aside from the MMWR study, almost all of the real-world vaccine data collected so far in the United States has been among health care workers. Those workers may not give a true picture of transmission risks because they have better personal protective equipment and ventilation than the average person does, Torriani says. Far more indicative would be studies to determine whether vaccinated people are less likely to infect household members. If [household transmission] goes away with vaccination, that would be the proof.
Here's the latest COVID-19 case, death and hospitalization data from the state.
ATLANTA We're breaking down the trends and relaying information from across the state of Georgia as it comes in, bringing perspective to the data and context to the trends.
Visit the 11Alive coronavirus page for comprehensive coverage, find out what you need to know about Georgia specifically, learn more about the symptoms, and keep tabs on the cases around the world.
State and federal officials with the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are continually monitoring the spread of the virus. They are also working hand-in-hand with the World Health Organization to track the spread around the world and to stop it.
Appling 1880 63
Atkinson 770 16
Bacon 1262 28
Baldwin 3791 109
Banks 1599 33
Barrow 8412 126
Bartow 10887 201
Ben Hill 1482 58
Berrien 1042 29
Bibb 13112 387
Bleckley 791 33
Brantley 899 30
Brooks 931 36
Bryan 2623 33
Bulloch 5161 62
Burke 1725 35
Butts 2120 73
Calhoun 443 14
Camden 3143 27
Candler 736 36
Carroll 7258 129
Catoosa 5395 61
Charlton 1044 23
Chatham 19563 394
Chattahoochee 2995 12
Chattooga 2176 60
Cherokee 21668 288
Clarke 12447 128
Clayton 22406 414
Clinch 718 25
Cobb 58391 915
Coffee 4204 133
Colquitt 3466 74
Columbia 10775 158
Coweta 8425 181
Crawford 519 17
Crisp 1405 51
Dawson 2638 39
DeKalb 55319 876
Decatur 2108 54
Dodge 1074 55
Dougherty 5393 274
Douglas 11468 169
Early 1001 42
Effingham 3678 62
Elbert 1512 56
Emanuel 1713 52
Fannin 2061 55
Fayette 6428 142
Floyd 9801 175
Forsyth 17201 167
Franklin 2306 41
Fulton 78688 1201
Gilmer 2425 70
Glascock 143 7
Glynn 6472 149
Gordon 6376 100
Grady 1507 45
Greene 1469 53
Gwinnett 83680 1008
Habersham 4589 144
Hall 24469 416
Hancock 823 59
Haralson 1678 34
Harris 2113 55
Henry 18318 273
Houston 9771 185
Jackson 8329 133
Jasper 663 18
Jeff Davis 1275 37
Jefferson 1556 58
Jenkins 716 39
Johnson 780 41
Jones 1553 52
Lamar 1292 44
Laurens 3644 141
Liberty 3153 59
Lincoln 500 24
Lowndes 7587 136
Lumpkin 2720 61
Madison 2682 44
Marion 384 17
McDuffie 1622 39
McIntosh 669 14
Meriwether 1475 68
Mitchell 1500 73
Monroe 1835 85
Montgomery 707 20
Morgan 1170 22
Murray 4034 74
Muscogee 13711 374
Newton 7196 208
Non-GA Resident/Unknown State 23627 446
Oconee 2968 62
Oglethorpe 1166 27
Paulding 10384 161
Scripps data experts worked with Columbia University to evaluate the temporary phase 3 reopening last summer
SAN DIEGO Scripps data experts worked with Columbia University to evaluate the temporary phase 3 reopening last summer.
The model shows that the 25-day reopening in San Diego last summer could be to blame for 45 deaths at local Scripps Hospitals alone.
The study looked at the effects of business reopening and the lowering of health restrictions in the area. Two deaths a day at local Scripps hospitals could have been avoided had the restrictions remained in place.
"Our research shows that community restrictions work, and that message couldn't be any more important than now as federal health officials warn that a fourth COVID-19 surge could be around the corner if we let our guard down too much and too quickly," said Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder. "While our efforts at Scripps have been focused on providing the best care possible to all of our patients throughout this period, we believe the knowledge and experience we have gained in our fight against this disease will help others in the community as they continue to respond to the ever-changing conditions of this health crisis."
The short-lived reopening began on June 12, 2020. County officials gave the okay for restaurants and bars and gyms to restart limited indoor use and activities under the Phase 3 state guidelines.
That was followed by a spike in COVID-19 cases in the area. On July 7th, of 2020 the county was forced to shut down indoor activities for gyms and close restaurants and bars for indoor service.
"These findings mirror recent conclusions by some experts nationally that more lives could have been saved had restrictions been put in place earlier and for a longer period during the pandemic. The findings also validate efforts that help to minimize the spread of the virus, such as wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and avoiding large gatherings.
Had county officials left the stricter restrictions in place, 400 COVID-19 hospitalizations and 45 deaths might have been avoided at Scripps' five hospital campuses, the researchers found. Under the second scenario, 172 hospitalizations and 19 deaths might have been avoided had the temporary reopening been shortened by one week"
The authors say the lesson learned here is that we must continue to keep our guards up and stringently follow health guidelines even as more of the population gets vaccinated.
A sign requiring face masks and COVID-19 protocols is displayed at a restaurant in Plymouth, Mich., on March 21. Coronavirus cases in Michigan are skyrocketing after months of steep declines, one sign that a new surge may be starting. Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
A sign requiring face masks and COVID-19 protocols is displayed at a restaurant in Plymouth, Mich., on March 21. Coronavirus cases in Michigan are skyrocketing after months of steep declines, one sign that a new surge may be starting.
After more than two months of steep declines, coronavirus infections are on the rise again nationally along with COVID-19 hospitalizations in many states.
In the past seven days, the U.S. reported slightly more than 65,000 new cases per day on average, a jump of 20% from two weeks earlier. Many states have seen even more dramatic growth, as high as 125% in Michigan, according to an NPR analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
And hospitalizations have risen for seven consecutive days in more than a dozen states, mostly in the Midwest and Northeast, according to the University of Minnesota's COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project.
These signs all point to the growing threat of another significant surge in COVID-19 cases, experts say.
But there's cautious optimism that it's not likely to be as devastating as the previous wave, which saw 200,000 or more confirmed cases a day on average for most of December and early January, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.
"Thanks to the rapid rollout of vaccines, I don't think we'll have a surge that is anything like what we've seen before," says Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "Still, any additional deaths at this point are tragedies, given that we have on hand vaccines that could have prevented them."
What's driving the growth in infections?
Another surge is inevitable, says epidemiologist Bill Hanage of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But he adds that "it might not be national, not all at the same time, and the consequences will vary depending on how many people are vaccinated when it kicks off."
Indeed, the rise in cases so far isn't consistent across the country. The Midwest has seen a 58% increase in new cases over the past 14 days, while the number of cases in the Northeast has climbed by 30%. Cases in the West rose by 5% and the South shows a slight decline.
Overall, 33 states and the District of Columbia have rising cases with seven states (plus Puerto Rico) growing by more than 50%.
A host of factors are fueling the resurgence. States have been loosening restrictions, while pandemic fatigue has led to less vigilance about precautions such as mask-wearing, social distancing and hand-washing.
Perhaps the biggest unknown is how the rapid spread of one particular coronavirus strain may play out.
The highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant represents a growing share of cases in the U.S. and is likely driving the current increase, notes Hanage. The strain, which emerged in the U.K., is up to 50% more infectious, and new research suggests it's more likely to result in serious illness and death as well.
Hospitalizations are another sign of how the surge is ramping up. The growth over the past week or so is the first time since the winter surge that hospitalizations appear to be rising: 10 states experienced spikes of 10% or more; four states Michigan, South Dakota, Connecticut and Maryland saw rises of about 15% or more, according to the University of Minnesota's COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project.
"A matter of choice"
For now, there's still plenty of reason for hope. The vaccine rollout is happening fast, though unevenly. So far, about 17% of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated.
And the vaccines appear to be effective at preventing severe illness and death from all the strains currently circulating, including the B.1.1.7 variant, Hanage told NPR's All Things Considered. So it's a race to get people vaccinated before the fast-spreading variant can take over.
There are two more positive factors to consider: the warming weather and existing immunity from previous infections, says Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida.
The fact that a lot of people have been infected naturally during the last surge and even earlier "will help take the edge off a bit of what potentially can happen in the future," she explains. "And the fact that we're moving out of the winter months into the spring, all of those things are working to our advantage."
Still, Harvard epidemiologist Hanage notes that it's important to pay attention to high-risk groups who may not be getting vaccinated as quickly.
"It doesn't take a large number of infections in the most vulnerable groups to cause serious problems," he told NPR.
Researchers NPR spoke to all cautioned that public policy and Americans' behavior can still make a huge difference in how bad this next surge will be.
Alessandro Vespignani, a disease modeler at Northeastern University in Boston, warns that relaxing measures like social distancing now could turn this into a bigger surge. Instead, he says, we need more time for the vaccination campaign to roll out.
"We really need to keep fighting for a few weeks," he says. "We see that light at the end of the tunnel and it's just a matter of keeping things together for a few more weeks. It's a matter of choice at this point."
How long will this surge last?
Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, says he's concerned about the next four to six weeks, but he expects that "once we get further into May, things will stabilize and start getting better."
The COVID-19 forecasting team at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia PolicyLab says they see signs that the new surge won't be as prolonged as winter's. In this week's forecasting update, they estimate cases in several Michigan cities may soon reach a spring peak, and they forecast the New York City region may also be stabilizing.
Other experts say a surge could last until June and that there's a chance it could be quite severe.
Nicholas Reich, an epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, says he "would be surprised but not shocked" if the surge did in fact rise to the levels seen in winter. Right now, he says, Michigan at least "is headed in that direction with scary velocity."
Though this resurgence of COVID-19 isn't generally expected to be as bad as the winter wave, experts repeatedly urge that now is not the time to relax.
Earlier this week, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that despite the positive momentum, she described feeling a sense of "impending doom" as the number of cases climbs.
"It will be critical for individuals to commit to masking and keeping gatherings small to protect communities in the coming weeks," says Lauren Walens, strategic operations and communications director of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's PolicyLab.
Melissa Nolan, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health, says the current uptick could in fact be followed by yet another flare-up in cases this summer.
"Our models are suggesting June as another peak, approximately a quarter the size of last summer's," she says, as a result of adults and children who remain unvaccinated.
Indeed, the trajectory and duration of the surge will depend a lot on how quickly people get vaccinated and what Americans and their state and local governments do in the meantime.
HONOLULU (KHON2) COVID-19 cases have been in triple digits the past three days.
With the Easter holiday upon us, there are concerns things could get worse forcing officials to tighten restrictions again.
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Positive COVID cases are on the rise statewide: 100 on March 31, 114 on April 1, and 136 on April 2.
Honolulus weekly average is currently 58, putting the county at risk of snapping back to Tier 2.
That is something people dont want.
Honolulu resident Teri Okuda said she thinks Honolulu should stay in Tier 3 as long as people continue to maintain the safety protocols.
Others think restrictions should be loosened even more.
I think with the vaccinations and everything and a lot of the locals, weve all been, as far as I can see, been following the rules and social distancing, said Honolulu resident Robyn Finai. I think we should be able to move forward, not backwards.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell said it would take more than current case counts to make that happen.
To snap back, the mayor needs to go to the governor and ask for permission to move it back to Tier 2, Caldwell explained. If I was mayor today, I think I would recognize it would be very hard to snap back to Tier 2 and get everyone to comply.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi issued the following statement:
We are in consultation with the Governor and Hawaii Department of Health given our shared concern regarding the recent increase in positive COVID-19 case counts. As we enter the Easter holiday weekend we stress to the public that hosting or participating in large unpermitted social gatherings will put more people at risk. The recent rogue events involving large illegal gatherings with no mask wearing and no physical distancing are jeopardizing our current Tier 3 status and are completely unacceptable.
Blangiardi did not mention tightening restrictions.
Instead of focusing on moving back, Caldwell said, I would focus on holding the line in Tier 3 and getting to Tier 4 and supporting Mayor Blangiardi with what hes done in terms of opening up more businesses.
Caldwell said the tier system was created before there was a vaccine and was meant to be organic.
I think it could be modified and adjusted, it was always meant to do so, he explained. It was modified by Mayor Blangiardi, I think in very good ways.
He said it makes sense to look at more than just case counts and positivity rates to decide whether to move back a tier.
It could be other types of things. One I would be looking at the hospitals and how many people are in there, said Caldwell.
Heres what you need to know:A nurse preparing a dose of the Moderna vaccine in Los Angeles on Thursday.Credit...Allison Zaucha for The New York Times
Federal regulators announced Thursday night that they had authorized Moderna to put 50 percent more coronavirus vaccine into its vials, a decision that is expected to lift the nations vaccine supply.
The decision provides new assurance of Modernas supply and could speed up its deliveries. Like Pfizer, another manufacturer of a two-dose vaccine, Moderna has pledged to deliver a total of 200 million doses by the end of May and 300 million by the end of July.
Moderna had already begun producing fuller vials in anticipation of the Food and Drug Administrations decision.
The agency told Moderna six weeks ago that it favored increasing the amount of vaccine in vials that it had previously authorized for 10 doses. In a statement, the company said it expects to begin shipping 15-dose vials within weeks.
The F.D.A.s ruling comes one day after revelations of a setback to the Biden administrations vaccine rollout. A factory mix-up ruined up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnsons one-shot vaccine, and has delayed F.D.A. authorization of the Baltimore plant where that vaccine is being manufactured.
Although Johnson & Johnson has said it will still be able to deliver 24 million doses this month, as promised, all shipments from that plant have been delayed while the F.D.A. investigates and decides whether to certify production lines there.
Federal officials have been counting on Johnson & Johnson to round out the nations vaccine supply. President Biden has promised enough doses for all the nations adults by the end of May.
F.D.A. regulators also decided to allow health practitioners to administer an 11th dose of Modernas vaccine if they were able to extract it out of vials previously designated for only 10 doses.
But the agency noted that unless practitioners use specialized syringes and needles, they might not to be able to extract that 11th dose. They may also be limited to only 13 shots from Modernas 15-dose vials.
Those specialized syringes have been in short supply for months.
Moderna was able to quickly modify one or more of its production lines because, while it poured more liquid into the vials, the size of vials themselves remained the same. All three of the nations federally authorized vaccine manufacturers have been able to produce more vaccine substance than they have been able to bottle in the so-called fill-and-finish phase.
In its statement, Moderna said that filling the vials with more vaccine was a way to relieve that bottleneck and accelerate production.
The mishap with Johnson & Johnsons vaccine occurred at a Baltimore plant run by Emergent BioSolutions, a subcontractor. Workers there accidentally contaminated Johnson & Johnsons doses with an ingredient used to produce a different vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. AstraZenecas vaccine has not been authorized for distribution in the United States. Emergent manufactures both vaccines at the same plant.
Federal officials attributed the mistake to human error. On Thursday, Emergent executives told employees that the entire lot of vaccine substance the equivalent of up to 15 million doses would be discarded.
Emergent issued a statement Thursday saying, Discarding a batch of bulk drug substance, while disappointing, does occasionally happen during vaccine manufacturing. The company said the error had been detected through rigorous quality checks.
Note: As of March 13, 2021. Source: Transportation Security Administration, analysis by Kevin Williams
American air travel has been picking up, but it is the small, regional, vacation-destination airports that are thriving a little more than a year after the pandemic, while large hub airports have just a fraction of the travelers they did at this time last year, detailed new data shows.
Big-city airports, including those in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle are serving between 24 percent and 46 percent of their typical traveler volume. Washington National, close to the District of Columbia, is down 70 percent in passenger volume, and Kennedy Airport in New York is serving about one-third of its normal volume, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration analyzed by Kevin Williams, a Yale economist who studies air travel.
Smaller regional airports, including those near Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Colorado ski country, have passenger volume as much as 12 percent higher than this time last year. And these airports appear to fall into two categories: those especially close to outdoor vacation destinations, and those serving communities whose residents are more willing to travel amid a pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to advise that people refrain from widespread travel for the time being, while the agency works on travel guidance.
The current guidance addresses local gatherings where fully vaccinated people now about 16 percent of the total U.S. population return to some activities in small private settings with other fully vaccinated people, or a fully vaccinated household with one other unvaccinated household. Fully vaccinated people, the agency said, should keep following health and safety precautions in public, including wearing a mask.
But with millions of Americans getting vaccinated each day, and many states rolling back 2020-era restrictions, the drive to return to somewhat normal lifestyles is growing.
Already, some destinations, cruise lines and venues are requiring travelers to provide a C.D.C. vaccination card as proof that they have been inoculated against Covid-19. And there is great interest in a vaccine passport that would make vaccination status easy to share digitally.
The Biden administration has stayed clear of such initiatives, leaving the matter to the private sector instead.
Whats important to us and were leading an interagency process right now to go through these details are that some important criteria be met with these credentials, including equitable access and privacy and security concerns, Andy Slavitt, the acting director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said recently.
An updated analysis of clinical trial data shows that the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine continues to offer strong protection without serious safety concerns, the companies said on Thursday.
The new data also suggested that the vaccine works against a worrisome virus variant in South Africa, although more studies are needed, experts said.
Pfizer and BioNTech made the announcement in a news release. The data have not been peer-reviewed nor published in a scientific journal.
Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizers chief executive, said in a statement that the new data confirm the favorable efficacy and safety profile of the vaccine and will allow the companies to submit an application to the Food and Drug Administration for full approval. At the moment, the vaccine has received only an emergency authorization from the agency.
The new analysis is an update to data gathered in the more than 44,000-person clinical trial that led to the authorization in the United States and in other countries in December. Pfizer and BioNTech have now recorded 927 cases of Covid-19 among participants in the study, and the new analysis finds that the vaccine is more than 91 percent effective after the second dose, given three weeks after the first.
In November, the companies said that the vaccine was 95 percent effective, a figure based on some 170 Covid-19 cases reported among participants. The new analysis found the vaccine was nearly 100 percent effective in preventing severe disease and death, as was the case in November.
More than 12,000 people who received the vaccine in the trial have passed the six-month mark since the second dose, and no new safety issues were identified, company researchers also said. The companies did not provide specific efficacy data for that group.
A virus variant first identified in South Africa has particularly worried scientists, because it carries mutations that could prevent vaccines from working as well as they do against the original coronavirus. Trials of other vaccines in South Africa, such as those developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, have shown that they are less effective against the so-called B.1.351 variant circulating there.
Pfizer and BioNTech said that among 800 trial participants in South Africa, all nine of the observed Covid-19 cases occurred in those who had received a placebo. Six were infected with the B.1.351 variant, suggesting that the vaccine had worked successfully to block that virus.
The companies have already announced plans to test the effectiveness of a third shot, and are also beginning a clinical trial of a new version of the vaccine that was developed specifically to target B.1.351. Moderna which, like Pfizer and BioNTech, makes a vaccine based on the mRNA platform and other companies have announced similar plans.
Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, said the small number of cases in South Africa made it difficult to interpret the results. And she noted that in the United States, where variants are not yet as widespread, the new analysis concluded that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was nearly 93 percent efficacious, compared to the initial estimate of 95 percent in November.
Dr. Dean said that she would need to see more details of the analysis to make any firm conclusions about that discrepancy. Some wiggle is expected in the final estimate, so I dont want to overstate this change, she said.
Pfizer and BioNTech declined to provide further details.
On Wednesday, the companies reported that a clinical trial had shown their coronavirus vaccine was almost 100 percent effective in adolescents aged 12 to 15, and caused no serious side effects. That data, too, has not yet been peer-reviewed nor published in a journal.
The Biden administration announced an advertising campaign on Thursday intended to encourage as many Americans as possible to be inoculated against the coronavirus, as deep skepticism about the vaccine remains.
The campaign, to air this month on network and cable television and online, comes as the country is moving to rapidly vaccinate Americans and as federal health officials warn against a possible fourth surge of the virus. The average number of new cases reported daily has risen about 17 percent across the country, compared with two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database.
Making equity a focus of its pandemic response, the Biden administration has added mass vaccination sites in several underserved communities. A recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the number of Americans, particularly Black adults, who want to get vaccinated has continued to increase. But it also found that vaccine skepticism remains stubbornly persistent, particularly among Republicans and white evangelical Christians. The Biden administration has flagged the issue as an impediment to achieving herd immunity and a return to normal life.
The administration is working with 275 organizations in its new public awareness push including NASCAR, the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the North American Meat Institute. The advertisements, hopeful in tone and intended as a call to action, are aimed at communities where vaccine hesitancy remains high. For example, many Catholic and evangelical groups are expected to help address religious concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was developed with abortion-derived fetal cell lines.
The group is collectively called the Covid-19 Community Corps, administration officials said, and participating organizations are able to reach millions of Americans who trust them.
Theyre going to listen to your words, more than they are me, as president of the United States, President Biden said Thursday on a call with faith leaders from around the country.
Administration officials said their research showed that vaccine messaging was often more persuasive coming from medical professionals and community leaders than from celebrities or the president,
The nation was averaging 2.9 million shots a day as of Thursday, according to data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number has been steadily increasing as more vaccination sites have been set up and more vaccine supply became available.
We have to be honest that in some communities, there is a concern about getting vaccinated, some based on mistrust based on history, some based on just rooted in misinformation, of which there is a lot out there, Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday during a virtual meeting about educating the public about the vaccines.
While no group is monolithic in its reasons for opposing or accepting the vaccines, the people who say they are skeptical have said they mistrust the government in general and are wary about the vaccine because it was produced quickly. Combating online misinformation remains a challenge; one fast-spreading myth is that tracker microchips are embedded in the shots.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nations leading expert on infectious diseases, explained on Wednesday that the speed in developing the virus vaccines was not a sign of rushed work.
The speed is really a reflection of decades of scientific advances that led to our being able to make a vaccine and test it so quickly, Dr. Fauci said during an interview with LL Cool J. Its been tested in tens and tens of thousands of people and it has shown a high degree of efficacy and a very, very good safety profile.
The Department of Health and Human Services has separately bought millions of dollars worth of advertising in Black and Spanish-language media, as well as in outlets that reach Asian-American and tribal communities, reinforcing the message about the safety and efficacy of coronavirus vaccines.
In early March, a New York Times analysis of state-reported race and ethnicity information showed that the vaccination rate for Black people in the United States was half that of white people, and the gap for Hispanic people was even larger. Public health experts have said that obstacles to vaccine access deserve much of the blame for those vaccination disparities.
Black and Hispanic people in the United States are less likely than their white counterparts to have internet access reliable enough to make online appointments; to have work schedules flexible enough to take any available opening; and to have access to dependable transportation to vaccine sites, among other factors. A lack of access to information about the vaccine through trusted providers can also lead to uncertainty and an unwillingness to get a shot.
For rural residents, access to the vaccine is so problematic that they see the logistics and travel time involved as simply not worth it.
Jan Hoffman contributed reporting.
Maine announced on Thursday that adults 16 years and older will be eligible for a vaccine on Wednesday, more than a week sooner than the April 19 deadline the state previously set. Virginia also announced it would allow residents 16 or older to begin getting vaccinated against Covid-19 on April 19, joining more than 40 states that have sped up efforts to open the process to all adults as federal health officials warn about a possible fourth surge of the coronavirus.
The Covid-19 vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement. And that light is getting brighter every day, as more and more Virginians get vaccinated.
Inoculation efforts in the United States have sped up, as states push to make more adults eligible, heeding a call from the president to rapidly expand eligibility.
Across the country, an average of 2.9 million shots a day were being administered, as of Thursday, according to data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 32 percent of Virginias total population has gotten at least one shot, putting it in the top 20 states, according to a New York Times analysis of C.D.C. data. About 17 percent of Virginias total population is fully vaccinated.
Currently, in Maine, about 35 percent of the population have received at least one shot, with 20 percent of the population fully vaccinated.
On Monday, President Biden ordered his coronavirus response team to ensure that by April 19 there would be a vaccination site within five miles of 90 percent of Americans homes. It builds on his plan for states to open eligibility to all adults by May 1.
The number of Americans, in particular Black Americans, who have been vaccinated or want to to get a shot has risen significantly since January, according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Republicans and white evangelical Christians continue to be skeptical of getting a virus vaccine, according to the survey.
The announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech this week that a clinical trial found their coronavirus vaccine to be highly effective in adolescents is good news for the 2021-22 school year.
Given the pace of adult vaccinations and the likelihood that they will lead to a decline in cases, many public health experts were already saying that schools should be planning to offer full-time in-person instruction for all grades in the fall.
Still, some teachers unions have resisted reopening schools to full capacity, even as teachers are being vaccinated. And many parents particularly parents of color have chosen to keep their students in distance learning out of fear about the virus.
Experts say the prospect that children 12 or older will probably have access to vaccines before September should reduce those concerns, and will build pressure on lagging districts to resume in-person instruction. More than anything, it increases the likelihood that middle and high schools will look more like normal in the fall.
Those schools have been more challenging to reopen than elementary schools, for two reasons: Older students are more likely than younger ones to become infected and to transmit the virus, and traditional middle and high school schedules make it difficult to keep students in stable groups.
By some estimates, fewer than half of U.S. high school students attend schools that now offer full-time in-person instruction, and as many as one in five are in schools that are still fully remote.
Dr. Jay Varma, a senior adviser for public health to Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, called the clinical trial results from Pfizer and BioNTech just extraordinary news, and said, It may have a really important impact on what happens with school protocols in the fall.
If many children and adolescents are vaccinated, that will also move the country closer to what scientists call herd immunity, the point at which the virus can no longer spread readily.
That if is a big one, though.
Two recent studies, neither of which has yet been peer-reviewed, found substantial vaccine hesitancy among parents of schoolchildren.
In one of the studies, concerns about the vaccine came mostly from mothers, particularly white Republican mothers.
Amid the spread of both accurate information and politicized disinformation about possible side effects, many mothers feel more capable of controlling the risks of the coronavirus itself than the risks of the coronavirus vaccine, Jessica Calarco, one of that studys authors, wrote in an opinion essay in The Washington Post.
Part of the challenge in persuading parents to vaccinate their children is that children rarely experience severe illness from the coronavirus. But experts say that it is critical to vaccinate children to achieve herd immunity and to deter new variants from emerging.
It is unclear whether schools will ultimately add the coronavirus vaccine to the list of vaccinations that students must receive to attend school.
The superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the countrys second-largest district, said in January that once Covid vaccines were available for children, vaccination would be required for students in classrooms. Unvaccinated students will continued to learn remotely.
But generally it is states, not school districts, that decide which vaccines to require, and some governors have already said they will not make coronavirus vaccines mandatory. Some experts believe that requiring them might backfire, and fuel resistance.
ISLAMABAD Pakistan said on Thursday that it would allow Covid-19 vaccine doses to be sold commercially to patients, starting with the vaccine developed in China by CanSino Biologics. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine will also be sold, officials said.
The policy will allow affluent Pakistanis to pay to get the shots at large private hospitals whenever they want, while most people wait their turn for a state-supplied vaccination.
The government will provide free vaccine to 98 percent of the people, Fawad Chaudhry, the federal minister for science and technology, said on Thursday after a meeting of the federal cabinet in Islamabad. But 2 percent of the people who dont want to wait in a line, we have decided to allow the sale of private vaccine.
The CanSino Biologics vaccine, which is administered in a single shot, will be sold for around $28 a dose, Mr. Chaudhry said.
The pricing for Sputnik V, a two-shot vaccine, is under dispute between the private company that plans to import it and the national drug regulator. Mr. Chaudhry said the company, Ali Gohar Pharmaceutical, wanted a free hand in pricing but the government could not allow that. The company has taken the matter to court in the southern province of Sindh.
On Thursday, Nadeem Akhtar, a judge of the Sindh high court, said in an interim order that any restriction relating to the sale of the Covid-19 vaccine at this stage would be against the public interest because of the undisputed urgent need due to the crisis currently being faced by the country. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for April 12.
Pakistan, with a population of more than 220 million, has reported more than 623,000 coronavirus cases and more than 14,000 deaths, according to a New York Times database. Officials said there were 53,127 active Covid cases as of Thursday, and that 98 people had died in the last 24 hours, 29 of whom were on ventilators.
President Arif Alvi; his wife, Samina Alvi; and Pervez Khattak, the defense minister, all tested positive for the virus last week. Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, tested positive in March; Mr. Khan has since recovered and resumed his official duties.
The countrys public vaccination program is off to a slow start, in part because the government has not been able to secure large supplies. Officials have said they expect three million doses of the CanSino vaccine to be delivered in the next few weeks.
The government is currently giving doses of another Chinese vaccine, developed by Sinopharm, to people over the age of 60, and began registering people 50 or older for vaccination this week. But according to a major Pakistani news outlet, only about 560,000 people have been inoculated so far, out of the 17 million who are now eligible.
Critics have assailed the slow pace of the free vaccination program, and many opposition politicians and health officials have questioned the governments decision to allow private sale of the vaccine, raising concerns about affordability and potential corruption.
The governments all over the world are subsidizing the vaccine for their citizens, said Faisal Karim Kundi, a spokesman for the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party. The majority of the population is poor in the country. How will the poor afford private vaccination?
MADRID In the prelude to Easter, some in Spain are lamenting what they see as a double standard in restrictions to contain Covid-19. The polemic is echoed in other European countries, where the authorities have also tightly restricted domestic travel while allowing their citizens to go abroad and permitting foreign tourists to enter and move about more freely.
The back-and-forth over the rules reflects the difficult balancing acts for European governments trying to blunt the pandemic while keeping their economies afloat, particularly when it comes to the tourism revenues that are so critical to countries like Italy and Spain. After seven years of consecutive growth in tourism arrivals, Spain welcomed 19 million people last year, down from almost 84 million in 2019.
The Spanish government has defended its approach, stressing that visitors from most other countries do not present the same health risks as residents on the move because they must test negative for Covid-19 before traveling. But local residents do not have the option to move around the country, even if they have tested negative, for leisure.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, introduced plans recently to create a digital certificate that could ease tourism this summer, including internal travel within member states.
Given that transmission and risk are similar for national and cross-border journeys, member states should ensure there is coherence between the measures applied to the two types of journey, said Christian Wigand, a commission spokesman.
Opposition politicians in Spain seized on those comments. Some were already accusing the authorities of favoring tourists over residents seeking an Easter getaway.
Mara Jess Montero, a minister and spokeswoman for the Spanish government, said last week that the country was doing exactly the same as others in allowing foreign travel but limiting domestic movement.
Italy also has tough rules in place restricting movement across the country. Residents are allowed to leave their town or their house in the more affected regions only for work, health reasons or other reasons deemed necessities.
VaccinATe: Athletic trainers allowed to give COVID-19 vaccine in one state WKRC TV Cincinnati
Massachusetts on Friday added type 1 diabetes, HIV, being overweight, and having a substance use disorder to the list of health conditions that qualify residents for the current and upcoming phase of COVID-19 vaccinations, aligning the state with recommendations from the federal government.
The additional conditions expand the number of residents who are currently eligible to be vaccinated and who will be eligible when the state opens up appointments to a larger pool on Monday. People with two or more qualifying health conditions are currently eligible to be vaccinated, and on Monday, people 55 and older and those with one qualifying health condition will be able to book appointments. The eligibility pool on Monday will expand by about 1 million people, according to the state.
The change also brings the state in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This week, the CDC added more medical conditions that are linked to an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, the Baker administration said in a statement on Friday. Massachusetts will adopt this guidance and make individuals eligible starting April 5th if they have one of these medical conditions. As a result of adopting the CDCs list, more residents will be eligible starting April 5th.
Previously, the state listed obesity and severe obesity with a body mass index of 30 kilograms per square meter or higher. The states website now lists overweight and obesity as qualifying conditions, and directs residents to the CDCs website to calculate their body mass index.
The state is currently building a tool that will allow preregistered residents to alter their submission if they qualify under the newly added conditions. The feature will be available soon, the statement said.
Eligible medical conditions include: cancer; chronic kidney disease; chronic lung diseases including COPD, asthma (moderate-to-severe), interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, and pulmonary hypertension; dementia or other neurological conditions; diabetes (type 1 or type 2), Down syndrome; heart conditions like heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies or hypertension; HIV infection; an immunocompromised state; liver disease; obesity; pregnancy; sickle cell disease or thalassemia; smoking; solid organ or blood stem cell transplant; stroke or cerebrovascular disease; or substance use disorders.
Amanda Kaufman can be reached at amanda.kaufman@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandakauf1.
