There were those who said, You know this is political, after the election its gonna go away, and I said, No I dont think so ... youre fooling yourself into this, this COVID-19 is real, Scottdale funeral home owner Frank Kapr. The only thing I can say to people now is, use your mask wherever you go, and stay safe, he said.
Its been nine months since the coronavirus outbreak was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
And while the emergency authorization of two new vaccines is being held as a ray of hope by health experts, cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in the United States.
In light of all of this, on Wednesday, Closer Look took a look back at this year in coronavirus news and asked guests two big questions: What have we learned so far? And what news should we be watching in the New Year?
First, Sam Whitehead, WABEs health reporter and host of the podcast Did You Wash Your Hands, shared his reflections on how the coronavirus has shaped this year and what news to watch in 2021.
Then, Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, associate professor and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and Beth Blauer, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Centers for Civic Impact, share how the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has expanded to track the national rollout of the new COVID-19 vaccines. The digital tool which tracks newly-confirmed cases, hospitalizations and other regional data was recently named one of TIME Magazines best inventions of 2020.
Finally, Dr. Aneesh Mehta, Chief of Infectious Diseases Services at Emory University Hospital, shares what medical experts have learned about COVID-19 since he first joined the program in March.
To hear the full conversation, click on the audio player above.
But for much of the US, the pandemic is raging out of control -- and will get worse before everyone can be vaccinated.
In just the past week, more than 18,000 people died from Covid-19 in the US. Hospitals are filling up fast.
And the US set a record Friday for the most Covid-19 infections reported in one day: 249,709, according to Johns Hopkins University.
"Unfortunately, it will get worse because we still are experiencing the outcome of the Thanksgiving holiday and gatherings," said Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific officer for Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's vaccine initiative.
"And unfortunately, there may be more over the Christmas holiday. So there will be a continuing surge."
More than 2 million travelers were screened at US airports between Friday and Saturday, the Transportation Security Administration said.
Where the Moderna vaccine will likely go
The first public doses of the Moderna vaccine will "most likely" be administered Monday morning, Slaoui said.
Distribution of the Moderna vaccine has already started, said Army Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed.
Just like the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine has received emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration.
More than 6 million doses of Moderna's vaccine will be shipped to more than 3,200 sites where they will be administered -- far more than the 636 sites that Pfizer's vaccines were shipped to.
As for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, more than 272,000 doses had been administered as of Saturday, according to the CDC.
Recipients of either vaccine must get two doses. The Pfizer/BioNTech doses should be spaced 21 days apart, and the Moderna vaccine should be spaced 28 days apart.
Excitement about a second vaccine must be tempered by a huge caveat: Only high-priority groups (such as health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities) will get vaccinated first.
But now we have an idea of who could receive vaccines next.
The CDC's advisory committee voted Sunday afternoon to prioritize older adults ages 75 and older and frontline essential workers in the next phase of vaccine allocation.
For the subsequent phase, the committee voted to prioritize adults between the ages of 65 and 75, people between the ages of 16 and 64 with high-risk medical conditions, and other essential workers.
These recommendations will "serve to address the current lack of vaccine supply and address those individuals with the highest risk for disease," said Dr. Jos Romero, the chair of the committee and the secretary of the Arkansas Department of Health.
Slaoui believes vaccines will still be effective after virus variation
But "up to now, I don't think there has been a single variant that would be resistant to the vaccine," Slaoui sad. "We can't exclude it, but it's not there now."
He said the novel coronavirus may be prone to variance. But critical aspects of the virus, such as the spike protein involved in a vaccine, are very specific to the novel coronavirus and unlikely to mutate much.
"Because the vaccines are using antibodies against many different parts of the spike protein, the chances that all of them change, I think, are low," Slaoui said.
Most Americans will still have to wait months for a vaccine
By the end of this year, "we will have enough doses to vaccinate nearly 20 million people," said Dr. Amanda Cohn, executive secretary for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
"By the end of January, we will have enough doses to vaccinate nearly 30 million additional people, and then by the end of February, 50 million additional people," Cohn said Sunday.
In other words, most Americans won't be able to get a Covid-19 vaccine until sometime in 2021.
Dr. Carlos del Rio, executive associate dean of Emory University's School of Medicine, said he agreed with that assessment.
"We're just simply saying, 'Well, we're getting vaccine.' But the vaccine is coming way too late for thousands of people who will die before we get the vaccine distributed widely," del Rio said Thursday.
"Transmissions (of the virus) are actively happening, and I think before the end of the year, we may be getting close to 4,000 deaths a day," del Rio said.
As for when children might be able to receive the vaccine, Moderna has an ongoing study of its vaccine in adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18. The company is also discussing an additional clinical trial for children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years with the National Institutes of Health.
CDC gives new advice for those with a history of allergic reactions
After several reports of allergic reactions to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the CDC now suggests those who have ever had a severe allergic reaction to an ingredient in a Covid-19 vaccine should not get that vaccine and should consult a doctor.
A reaction is considered severe if it requires the person to be treated with epinephrine, or they need to be hospitalized. Such reactions can include shortness of breath, a closing of the throat, nausea and dizziness.
If someone gets a severe allergic reaction after the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, they should not get the second dose, the CDC said.
Those who have severe allergies unrelated to vaccines or injectable medications can still get a Covid-19 vaccines, the agency said.
The CDC also said those who have a history of allergies to any oral medications or people with milder reactions to vaccines can also still get vaccinated.
Vaccine providers should monitor all people for 15 minutes after getting the vaccine for any possible reaction, and those with a history of severe allergic reactions should be monitored for 30 minutes, the CDC said.
It said all vaccine providers should have epinephrine, antihistamines, stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs and timing devices on hand to treat and monitor reactions.
But so far, the percentage of vaccine recipients who had a severe reaction is extremely low.
Of the 556,208 Pfizer/BioNTech doses given as of Sunday, only a handful serious allergic reactions have been reported.
Several health care workers at Providence Health Alaska suffered adverse reactions, spokesman Mikal Canfield said Saturday. The reactions were not life-threatening.
In total, five people in Alaska had adverse reactions across the state.
In suburban Chicago, adverse reactions in four employees caused a hospital to temporarily stop its Covid-19 vaccination program for frontline workers.
The health care company noted those four workers represented "fewer than 0.15% of the approximately 3,000 who have so far received vaccinations across Advocate Aurora Health."
The health care system said the program will resume Sunday, but with increased time to monitor people after getting the vaccine.
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said allergic reactions to vaccines are "not abnormal or unexpected."
"The system is working," Adams said. "We are recognizing and catching these very, very rare side effects."
CNN's Nadia Kounang, Jacqueline Howard, Ben Tinker, Arman Azad, Virginia Langmaid, Lauren Mascarenhas, Paul Vercammen, Pete Muntean and Gisela Crespo contributed to this report.
"This is the first variant I've seen during the whole pandemic where I took a step back and said: 'Whoa,' " he remembers.
Health officials have downplayed the possibility that the coronavirus vaccines won't work against the UK strain, but Worobey and other scientists thinks it's a possibility -- and it's just a possibility -- that this new variant might, to a small extent, outsmart the vaccines.
Anti-face mask protesters and coronavirus skeptics attend Anti-Covid Freedom March in Krakow, Poland ... [+] on October 10, 2020. Many participants did not cover their mouths and noses, and they did not maintain social distance. So-called freedom marches are ubiquitous right now, but solid information about COVID-19 and vaccines can help bring both the coronavirus and the misinformation pandemics to an end.
Over the past year, most of us have learned more about coronaviruses than we ever thought we'd need to know. Throughout 2020, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has swept across the globe, infecting over 78 million humans with Covid-19, reaching all seven continents, and killing close to 2 million of us so far. Meanwhile, scientists worldwide have raced to do the unthinkable: to develop and deploy a safe and effective vaccine against this new illness in record time. Unlike Russia and China, which released vaccines without conducting the necessary trials to prove their safety, our first accelerated, comprehensive vaccine trials reached completion in November.
At last, there's cause for celebration. The vaccines not only proved safe, but incredibly effective, as the infection rate was about 20 times lower in the vaccinated groups compared to the control groups, with no known cases of serious infections or fatalities among those who received the vaccines. But three people experienced severe allergic reactions to the vaccine, raising concerns among the general public. Should you get the vaccine? Whats the risk versus the reward of getting it? Heres what everyone, regardless of your level of vaccine skepticism is, should know.
A researcher holds a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine during a news conference at the National Primate Research ... [+] Center of Chulalongkorn University. Some mRNA vaccine candidates are in early stage of development, but 2 of them in particular, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, have already been demonstrated to be safe and effective, and are beginning to be rolled out to people worldwide. (Chaiwat Subprasom/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Although there are many different vaccines out there, most of the focus is now on two of them in particular: the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. These were the two vaccines that displayed the highest effectiveness so far, but theyre also completely new in a specific way: they work via a different technology than every other vaccination you've received over your life. Prior vaccines used a weakened or inactivated form of the virus, or just particular fragments of a virus: whats known as viral proteins. These vaccines behave as teaching tools for our bodies, giving us a template to fight the real infectious viruses when they come for us.
When the vaccines enter our body, either the viruses or the viral proteins get spotted by our immune system, which first recognize them as foreign and then work to destroy them. Although there are a variety of immune responses our body produces, the basic idea is that we learn how to effectively destroy these training dummies, so that when the real virus comes for us, theres no learning curve. We already know how to destroy them, and we do so in short order.
The major novelty here is that instead of actual viruses or virus components, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are mRNA vaccines. They work similarly, but have one unique aspect that sets them apart.
A temperature controlled fridge stores the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine as Covid-19 vaccinations ... [+] take place at Haxby and Wiggington Surgery on December 22, 2020 in York, England. In many locations across the world, new refrigeration infrastructure will need to be set up in order to safely and effectively house and distribute these vaccines. (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
mRNA vaccines are based off of the virus's messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which carries instructions for making viral proteins. When these instructions enter your body, your cells produce what it encodes: a specific portion of a protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus known as the "spike protein." Once the protein exists in your body, the vaccine works just like all other vaccines: it teaches your immune system how to fight the real infection. Your immune system recognizes this spike protein as "foreign" and produces B-cells which produce antibodies as well as T-cells that are specifically made to stop SARS-CoV-2.
The mRNA vaccine ends up teaching your body to produce these B-cells and T-cells, which in turn protect you from Covid-19. Injecting you directly with mRNA saves scientists the previously necessary steps of isolating and purifying large quantities of weakened/inactivated virus or viral proteins in the lab. Instead, your body simply makes the viral proteins directly, replacing a previously unavoidable, high-labor process with a rapid training montage. The extra practical difficulty is that the mRNA must be kept at very cold temperatures compared to the other vaccine methods. Once its administered, however, it offers the best protection against Covid-19 currently available.
Frontline workers and staff from the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB), pose for a photographer ... [+] after they received a shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the SIHB, on December 21, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (Karen Ducey/Getty Images).
But protection, or immunity, means something different from what we conventionally think. It doesn't necessarily mean, "I won't get infected, I won't be contagious, and I can't pass this infection onto others," which is what we typically associate with immunity. From the clinical trials conducted, we can confidently state that protection means, "I am approximately ~95% protected from getting a symptomatic Covid-19 infection and possibly as much as ~99%+ protected from a severe/deadly infection," as no deaths were observed in the vaccinated group in either drug's trial.
What hasnt been demonstrated, at least so far, is that these vaccines prevent you from getting infected entirely. We've shown that these vaccines provide neutralizing immunity, where the virus will no longer severely harm you, but not necessarily sterilizing immunity, where you cannot pass the virus onto others. Additionally, it isn't known how long your immunity will persist. This, very importantly, means that you still need to wear a mask, wash/sanitize your hands, and practice social distancing and to be rigorous about doing them all for now. Just because you are protected doesn't absolve you of your responsibility to protect others.
An unmasked individual doing something as simple as exhaling (top) can send droplet particles large ... [+] distances, with a high potential for spreading the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Wearing a mask (bottom) significantly reduces the distance that droplets travel, offering some measure of protection to others as well as, to a lesser extent, the wearer. Note that being too close to a masked individual will not prevent the spread of the virus; masks and distancing needs to occur in tandem.
What about side effects? There will be very real side effects that arise from this vaccine. Pain at the injection site and fatigue have both been well-documented, and appear to be worse after the second shot in these two-shot series. The Pfizer vaccine, in particular, shows some evidence of causing serious effects in a subset of individuals susceptible to severe allergic reactions; a total of three allergic reactions have been documented so far. Even though these vaccines do not contain common vaccine allergens such as egg or gelatin, you should still speak with your physician about vaccine allergies if you have concerns.
Of course, when you consider the side effects from getting the vaccine versus the risks of what are happening in the non-vaccinated population that gets infected, the overall effectiveness of these vaccines is more than worth it. These vaccines both reduce the severity of coronavirus infections and appear to entirely eliminate the risk of sustaining long-term damage to your body from the virus. Over the coming months, heroic efforts will be made to immunize as many members of the population as possible, with the hopes of bringing the current pandemic to an end.
But just as we should be embracing this scientific advance and all the benefits it can confer upon our society, anti-vaccine advocates, known as anti-vaxxers, are waging a novel misinformation campaign designed to stoke fear about these new vaccines.
When people reject science in favor of whatever their preferred ideology is, they can come to absurd ... [+] and destructive conclusions. The fact that people aren't wearing masks, are advocating against testing, vaccines, and other public health interventions are an unconscionable act of science denial, harming all of civilized society.
Adhering to the standard denialist playbook, their claims are varied but predictable, all rooted in conspiratorial thinking. The evidence for vaccine harm simply isn't there, but anecdotes of I/my kid got sick within 24/48 hours of getting a vaccine are being widely shared across social media. These anecdotes may be true, but when public health specialists and disease ecologists study the question of how likely are you to get this sickness within 24/48 hours of getting a vaccine versus getting this sickness at any other time, the answer always comes back as neither more nor less likely. There is no evidence that vaccines are more harmful than not getting vaccines, except the vaccines give you immunity against preventable, sometimes deadly diseases.
Similarly, claims of "personal choice" and "bodily autonomy" always end where your personal choices cause harm to others; spreading a lethal illness to otherwise vulnerable people the very young, the immunocompromized, those who lack natural immunity, or those who cannot be vaccinated is tantamount to a potentially deadly assault. The vaccine shows equal safety and effectiveness across all races, genders, and adult ages; the mRNA never enters the cell's nucleus and cannot modify your DNA; there are no serious adverse effects observed in over 100,000 injections of mRNA vaccines. In addition, no steps were skipped in these speedy vaccine trials. In fact, they contained more than 5 times as many participants as a standard Phase 3 trial, surpassing the required benchmarks for all previously approved vaccines.
Although we presently have two novel and effective mRNA vaccines, others vaccines are in trials ... [+] right now, including Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), whose vaccine is currently being produced in large quantities in preparation for a phase 3 trial by the end of this month in the photograph shown here. (FRANCOIS LO PRESTI/AFP via Getty Images)
Many have expressed concern about the recent mutation that has been discovered in the UK among coronavirus patients. It should be concerning, but not for the reason that most of us think. Most of us, when we hear the virus has mutated, we worry that those already infected will no longer be immune, and that the vaccine weve developed may not protect us from the new strain. We call an organism that mutates to avoid any previous immunity an escape mutant, and this is the present nightmare scenario for public health professionals.
This worry is a possibility, but an unlikely one. The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates regularly, according to the CDC, with a total of 23 independently identified mutations so far. Although they mention Ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity as a possible concern, they also note that There is no evidence that this is occurring, and most experts believe escape mutants are unlikely to emerge because of the nature of the virus. The antibodies that the vaccine helps create target multiple parts of the spike protein, and changing one part wont decrease your immunity. Its like when the police are looking for a suspect, theyre unlikely to be fooled by a disguise consisting solely of a ponytail and glasses.
Matching genetic sequences can be leveraged in wide variety of applications, from criminal forensics ... [+] to tracking the evolution of an infectious disease. The novel SARS-CoV-2 strain appears to gain about one new mutation every 2 weeks, with cumulative mutations posing a greater public health threat than any known one-off mutation. (Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)
What is concerning about the virus mutating is this: viruses mostly mutate via random chance, through a process known as genetic drift. Each individual mutation is unlikely to cause that worst-case scenario, just as any single lottery ticket is unlikely to win you the Powerball. If you give the virus enough chances to mutate, however, just like if you buy enough lottery tickets, the unlikely could become an inevitability. The things that give the virus more chances to mutate are the number of infected hosts, and the duration of time that the virus remains both in the population and in each host while theyre infectious or contagious.
The safest path forward for all of us is one where:
Every time someone goes out to a bar or restaurant, over to a friend or relatives house, or has any type of close, prolonged, or non-essential contact, they run an increased risk of not only contracting or spreading the virus themselves, but of being that unlucky lottery ticket who creates an escape mutant within their own body.
If each person in every household is allowed to visit one and only one person outside of their own ... [+] household, the connectivity of the network increases dramatically over the essential-only connected scenario. This illustrates very clearly why even just a few isolated gatherings can catastrophically spread the virus, infecting or exposing a large number of people in very short order.
As of today, there have been more than 18.5 million coronavirus cases in the United States, with more than 327,000 documented deaths resulting from those infections. Millions of additional people have sustained long-term damage to various organs, including their lungs, hearts, livers, kidneys, and more. Cardiovascular events among previously healthy individuals, like heart attacks and strokes, have been well-documented and connected to Covid-19 in humans. With an average of more than 200,000 new coronavirus cases each day in the United States, the infection rates are not only at an all-time high, but the death rate is as well, with nearly 3000 Americans dying on a daily basis right now.
And yet, the combination of the vaccine and our capacity to engage in socially responsible behavior can stop this disease in its tracks. Frontline healthcare workers are leading the way, receiving record numbers of vaccinations with extraordinarily low numbers of adverse effects. Many of us, when we ask ourselves what we should be doing with our bodies, look to what the most informed and educated are themselves doing with theirs. In this case, the answer is getting vaccinated immediately, demonstrating that this a case where doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are practicing exactly what they preach.
Ebenezer Mienza, a healthcare worker at the NIH Clinical Center, gestures after receiving his first ... [+] dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on December 22, 2020. Seated in the foreground is Dr. Anthony Fauci, who also received the vaccine, along with Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, who is not pictured. (Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images)
It's important to be honest about the limitations of what we know. We don't know how long the immunity conferred by a vaccine will last. We don't know whether there are long-term effects arising from these vaccines or not, or what they might be if they do arise. However, based on what weve learned so far, any long-term effects from the vaccine will likely be significantly less in severity and fewer in number than the long-term effects of infection. We don't know how these vaccines fare in pregnant women or whether they work for children and adolescents. And we don't know how the upcoming Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which only requires one shot as opposed to the two required by Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines, will perform in comparison.
What we do know, however, is how bad Covid-19 is, and how destructive its long-term effects can be on your body, even in people who only experience mild infections. Refusing a vaccine when you're perfectly capable of receiving it recklessly endangers not only yourself, but quite possibly all the others you come into contact with. Your rights to your own bodily choices, in all cases, end where those choices have demonstrably harmful effects on others. There is no clearer example of deliberate harm than being willing to directly infect others with a preventable disease. Theres nothing wrong with being appropriately skeptical, but its also morally imperative that we stand up for science. Our unfounded fears of the unknown provide no justification for risking the lives of others.
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Tennessee to get 90,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses a week, will accelerate shots Tennessean
"I'm very, very concerned," says Dr. Ranit Mishori, senior medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights. "If we are as a country to achieve herd immunity, that means non-citizens who live among us have to be immunized."
But Mishori and other advocates and experts who recently spoke with CNN said a big obstacle is standing in the way of that goal: fear.
Here are some of the key issues they're already seeing come up.
She's started hearing concerns from her patients
Dr. Kathleen Page says she's seen this fear play out time and time again during the pandemic. Sometimes, she says, undocumented patients are extremely ill with Covid-19, but still scared to go to the hospital because they're afraid they could end up in the hands of immigration authorities.
And when it comes to the vaccine, Page says she's started hearing similar concerns from some of her patients.
"I've heard from people who say, 'You know what, I'm not sure about this vaccine. I'm not sure whether to trust it, I don't trust this administration,'" says Page, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
But already in some corners of the immigrant communities that have been disproportionately devastated by the pandemic, Page says, vaccine conspiracy theories are taking hold. She says it's not hard to understand why skepticism and mistrust of the government are prevalent in undocumented communities -- and why some immigrants fear that data collected when vaccines are given could later be used by immigration authorities.
"It doesn't take a lot," she says, "to convince someone who has seen things like families separated at the border, kids separated from their parents, to think, 'Well, this government Is not looking out for me, and why should I trust them?'"
Page says she tells her patients she'll be taking the vaccine, and she hopes they'll do the same.
But she says the concerns she already sees bubbling up are a clear sign that community leaders must be involved in the vaccine rollout.
"We need to get enough people to really trust the system and get access and get vaccinated so we can make a difference," she says. "Otherwise this group of people will continue to be suffering disproportionately."
Asked by CNN whether -- and how -- vaccines would be made available to undocumented immigrants as part of the federal government's distribution efforts, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement saying it was "not involved with this policy decision" and is working to make sure every American has access to the vaccine. State and local governments will ultimately decide on how vaccines are distributed, HHS said.
"Operation Warp Speed will deliver vaccines to administration sites requested by jurisdictions, enabling and executing their plans, as they best know their populations and areas," the statement said, referring to the federal vaccination effort.
Worries about cost could also get in the way
"We've paid for the vaccines, we paid for the shipping costs, and the administration costs ... will be covered by healthcare payers, private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and our program to cover Covid-19 expenses for the uninsured," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said earlier this month.
That prompted a letter from a New York lawmaker, expressing concern.
"Covid-19 does not discriminate, and neither should we as access to a vaccine grows closer," Gianaris, the state Senate deputy majority leader, said in a statement released with the letter last month.
Asked this week by CNN to explain Bourla's comments, Pfizer referred questions on the matter to the government, saying the CEO had been referring to government statements on the topic.
Concerns about costs often keep undocumented immigrants from seeking medical care, Page says. And those same fears could also make the undocumented community more wary of a vaccine, she says, if clear messages aren't sent from community leaders.
And fear isn't the only factor advocates are worried about
While combating fear around the vaccine is a top concern for advocates and medical professionals who work with immigrant communities, it's not the only thing on their minds.
"This is a crisis. .... This is one of these times in history where we need to be protecting our workers that are feeding us all across this nation, and we need to meet them where they're at to provide service and information and get them the help they need, because it's life and death," says Noe Paramo, a legislative advocate for the foundation.
That, Diringer and Paramo say, means taking steps now to conduct outreach and plan for things like mobile clinics and flexible hours to make sure the largely immigrant workforce living in remote, rural areas has access to vaccines.
Mishori of Physicians for Human Rights says another major issue deserves attention now: making sure ICE detainees get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
ICE says the agency is working with its federal and contract facilities to make sure detainees receive the vaccine.
"ICE will follow the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and other relevant federal government guidance regarding vaccine prioritization to ensure detainees receive their vaccinations as quickly as possible," the agency said in a statement to CNN.
But exactly when -- and how -- that will happen remains unclear.
It took time for officials to realize the extent of health inequities playing out during the pandemic and take steps to combat them, and Mishori says she worries a similar situation will unfold with the vaccine.
"We've had honestly years of health-care system marginalization of these communities. I don't see how it's not going to be a story that repeats itself," she says. "But I hope it's not. I hope we can stop it."
Mishori says that's why she and other advocates are speaking out now -- before it's too late.
CNN's Samira Said, Nadia Kounang, Michael Nedelman and Maggie Fox contributed to this report.
Experts warn of scammers trying to capitalize on the rollout of coronavirus vaccines.
PORTLAND, Oregon Law enforcement officials are warning of scammers trying to take advantage of people with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The FBI issued a press release warning of online advertisements selling fake doses or trying to charge you money with false promises to get a vaccine sooner.
There are several real-world examples of this already. Law enforcement officials in Europe shared a bogus adfor a fake Pfizer vaccine they found online. It cost .06882 Bitcoin or about $1,300.
The FDA sent a warning letter to a Seattle man and owner of North Coast Biologics in Seattle for advertising "unapproved and misbranded" products related to COVID-19 after he claimed he had the vaccine and has given the shot to a dozen people.
In fact, the FDA has sent warning letters to 152 companies about fraudulent coronavirus disease products in 2019.
And experts believe it's only going to get worse with people desperate to get the vaccine.
"Law enforcement is warning that you could see tons of these ads and that people could end up getting hurt from this," said Kerry Tomlinson, a cybersecurity and tech journalist with Archer News Network.
Tomlinson said there are three things that can happen if you fall for one of these ads:
1. It's a fake ad and your money is stolen.
2. The "vaccine" you thought you were buying is fake and doesn't hurt you but it doesn't work.
3. You buy something that could make you sick or even kill you.
Bottom line, if you see the COVID-19 vaccine for sale online, it's fake.
Do you have something you want Cristin to investigate? Email her at CallCristin@kgw.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Americans on Wednesday faced the prospect of a government shutdown during a pandemic as outgoing President Donald Trump, angry at his fellow Republicans in Congress, demanded dramatic changes to a $2.3 trillion government funding and coronavirus aid package.
The package, which includes $892 billion for relief from the coronavirus crisis, passed both chambers of Congress on Monday after months of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats.
It also pays for government operations through September 2021, so if Trump blocks it large parts of the U.S. government will start to shut down next week for lack of funds.
Trump, in a video posted to social media on Tuesday evening, surprised some of his closest officials by demanding lawmakers change the bill to include $2,000 payments to each American, more than triple the $600 per person provided.
A source familiar with the situation said aides thought they had talked Trump out of the $2,000 demand last week. The video surprised even Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who took part in the talks and backed the $600 figure.
Trump was irked when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Congresss top Republican, last week acknowledged Democrat Joe Bidens defeat of Trump in the November election, another source said. Biden is due to take office on Jan. 20.
Trump did not explicitly say he would veto the measure, apparently holding out hope Congress would modify a complex package that took months to negotiate. The White House had said on Sunday that Trump would sign it into law.
Because Congress is due to adjourn at the end of the year, the bill will be automatically vetoed after 10 days if Trump takes no action, in what is known as a pocket veto.
Trump also demanded the bill be stripped of foreign aid, which is included in every annual federal spending bill - and was requested by his own administration last year. He objected to other government activities funded by the 5,500-page bill, such as fish breeding and funding for the Smithsonian museums.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate passed the bill by wide, bipartisan margins, and could return to Washington to override a veto if necessary.
Some congressional Democrats - who had viewed the relief package as too small a response to a crisis that has killed more than 320,000 Americans and thrown millions of people out of work - welcomed Trumps move.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House could vote to raise those payments on Thursday if House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy agreed to do so.
Mr. President, sign the bill to keep government open! Urge McConnell and McCarthy to agree with the Democratic unanimous consent request for $2,000 direct payments! This can be done by noon on Christmas Eve! she responded to Trump on Twitter.
McConnell and McCarthys offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trumps demands put his fellow Republicans in an awkward position. Many of them opposed the $2,000 payments that Trump is now demanding as too expensive, and they would have to either defy their partys leader or change their position on those payments.
Lets get this into law, and we can have an ongoing discussion about whether there should be additional direct payments or not, Republican Senator Pat Toomey said on Fox News.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Trump participates in a pre-game coin toss ahead of the annual Army-Navy collegiate football game at Michie Stadium, in West Point, New York, U.S., December 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Current federal funding is due to expire on Monday if Trump does not sign the bill into law. He is scheduled to leave for Florida on Wednesday afternoon for the Christmas holiday.
A funding lapse would furlough millions of federal workers and shut down wide swaths of the U.S. government at a time when it is rushing to distribute two coronavirus vaccines and contend with a massive hack that officials ascribe to Russia, but which Moscow denies.
Trump has also threatened to veto a $740 billion defense-policy bill, which has passed every year since 1961.
Trump dislikes that bill because it would strip the names of generals who served the pro-slavery Confederacy from military bases and does not repeal liability protections - unrelated to defense - for social media companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, that Trump considers unfriendly to conservatives like himself.
The House plans to return on Dec. 28 if Trump vetoes the defense-policy bill. That is the same day government funding is due to expire.
In Georgia, where control of the U.S. Senate hangs on a pair of Jan. 5 runoff elections, Democrats pressed incumbent Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to say whether they agreed with Trump that the $600 payments were too low. Neither campaign responded to a request for comment.
Trump sparked a record 35-day government shutdown two years ago when he rejected a federal spending bill over what he said was insufficient funding for building a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Steve Holland, additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Steve Holland; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell
Maine plans to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines as more doses arrive next week, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday.
Assisted-living facilities and emergency medical responders will be among the recipients of vaccines in week three of Maines rollout. The 19,125 doses the state will receive also will be used to expand the effort to vaccinate hospital workers and nursing residents and staff, the state said.
The Maine CDC also launched its online COVID-19 vaccine dashboard on Wednesday, providing a central location for information about immunization for patients and health care professionals alike. The site answers frequently asked questions such as who receives priority for the vaccine, and also includes a vaccination counter, which as of 9 p.m. was at 8,001 statewide.
So far, only one person who has been vaccinated in Maine, a health care worker who was inoculated at Maine Medical Center on Tuesday, has experienced a strong allergic reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC reported. It is the first such case of anaphylaxis reported in Maine and one of a small number across the country. The unidentified worker, who had a predisposition to allergic reactions, was doing well at home on Wednesday after being treated and observed at the hospital for several hours, the CDC said.
No other serious reactions have been reported among the Mainers who have been vaccinated in hospitals and nursing homes across the state. They were joined Wednesday by some of the first EMTs in the state to get vaccinated.
The Maine Med employee who had an allergic reaction to a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday evening had a history of severe allergies and past experience with anaphylaxis, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer for MaineHealth.
Hospital staff conducting the vaccination clinic were aware of the employees medical history and observed the person after being vaccinated, as required for all COVID-19 inoculations, Mills said. Symptoms of anaphylaxis can include widespread rash and swelling, plummeting blood pressure, rapid heartbeat and difficulty breathing.
The person started showing symptoms of an allergic reaction after 10 minutes, and it advanced to anaphylaxis after 20 minutes, Mills said. The person was given an epinephrine pen injection and transported to the emergency room for further treatment, which could have included steroids, oxygen and intravenous fluids, she said.
Everything worked as it should have, said Mills, who was among the medical volunteers administering vaccines Tuesday night. The person stayed at the hospital for several hours for observation and was doing well at home today.
The employee will not be able to receive a second dose of the vaccine, which is required to provide maximum protection, but was glad to at least get a single dose, Mills said.
Mills said an anaphylactic reaction to inoculation is similar to that of someone who has a severe allergy to bee stings or nuts, which is why epi pens are available at each vaccination station and the observation area.
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said Wednesday that the anaphylaxis experienced by the Maine Med employee was similar to those reported in other states and other countries, and that such reports remain rare.
Reactions of this sort have and will continue to happen, he said. Reactions of this sort have thankfully been the extreme rarity.
At least seven people in the United States have reported severe allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines, which had been administered to more than 1 million Americans as of Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. CDC.
In Alaska last week, three health care workers were treated for anaphylactic reactions shortly after receiving the vaccine and have recovered. One had no previous allergies.
The U.S. CDC recommends that all people receiving the vaccines be monitored on site for 15-30 minutes, depending on whether the recipient has a history of severe allergic reactions. Vaccine providers should have medications and equipment such as epinephrine, antihistamines, stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs ready.
Normal side effects include pain and swelling at the injection site, and possible fever, chills, fatigue and headaches through the rest of the body, according to the U.S. CDC. If redness or tenderness around the shot increases after 24 hours, the person should contact their health care provider.
Because the vaccine requires two doses to be effective, the U.S. CDC recommends that people who experience side effects receive the second shot unless their health providers say otherwise.
In Maine, the next vaccine shipments will be used to continue immunizing front-line health care workers and nursing home residents and staff, and to expand vaccine access to assisted-living facilities and to emergency medical responders, according to the Maine CDC.
The coming shipments are expected to include 10,725 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 8,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine. All told, Maine health authorities say theyll have enough doses to vaccinate about 64,775 people in the first three weeks of distribution.
Some of the first vaccines for EMTs were administered Wednesday to members of the York County Incident Management Team, according to a news release from the county government.
Fred Lamontagne, who serves as operations chief for the team, said his goal was to administer 80 doses by the end of the day. Lamontagne is also chief of the Old Orchard Beach Fire Department, which received 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard contributed to this report.
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