NEW YORK (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson plans to start testing its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in youths aged 12 to 18 as soon as possible, and the companys previous experience with the same technology in a vaccine successfully used in children could give it a leg up with regulators.
FILE PHOTO: Small bottles labeled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe are seen in this illustration taken taken April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
We plan to go into children as soon as we possibly can, but very carefully in terms of safety, J&Js Dr. Jerry Sadoff told a virtual meeting of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Friday.
Depending on safety and other factors, the company plans to test in even younger children afterwards, said Sadoff, a vaccine research scientist at J&Js Janssen unit, without giving a timeline.
J&J said in a statement that it is currently in discussions with regulators and partners regarding the inclusion of the pediatric population in its trials.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it is important for drugmakers to test their vaccines in children. Some doctors have raised concerns that the vaccines themselves could trigger a rare, life-threatening condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in some children.
Rival drugmaker Pfizer Inc has already begun testing the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Germanys BioNTech in children as young as 12. Their vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA), a new technology that has yet to produce an approved vaccine.
J&Js uses a cold virus to deliver coronavirus genetic material in order to spur an immune response. The platform - called AdVac - is used in a vaccine for Ebola that was approved in Europe earlier this year and used on more than 100,000 people, including infants, children, and pregnant women.
The technologys history of safety should be important to regulators, said Dr. Paul Spearman, director of the infectious diseases division of Cincinnati Childrens Hospital.
Most of the toxicities are going to come from the platform and not from putting a different insert into the platform, Spearman said. So replacing the Ebola genetic material with that of the novel coronavirus is unlikely to give you major issues, he added.
J&J started testing the vaccine in adults in a 60,000-volunteer Phase III study in late September. It had to pause the trial earlier this month because of a serious medical event in one participant. The study resumed last week.
Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot
Would you sign up for a vaccine trial? One Lancaster woman shares her experience with the DNA vaccine trial from Penn Medicine.
LANCASTER, Pa. A Lancaster mother is doing her part amid the COVID-19 pandemic by participating in a clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine. Stella Sexton, 41, signed up for the INOVIO COVID-19 Vaccine Phase 1 Clinical Trial by Penn Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine.
Sexton said she stumbled up the trials need for volunteers on the Lancaster Countys website at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
This was back in May and of course I had been home with my kids and trying to get them through school, Sexton explained. I was shopping for my elderly relatives and I was trying to keep everybody going. I just thought Gosh, we need to get a vaccine to end this.
The healthy mother of two felt she had a chance to make a difference. She signed up for the DNA vaccine trial and received her first dose on June 8. Sexton received a booster shot one month later.
The interesting thing about this vaccine is that they have basically stripped those little spikes off the [virus] so it doesnt contain the whole virus. It cant make me contagious and it cant make me sick, Sexton added. The goal is to see what my immune system does just with the vaccine.
After injecting the vaccine, nurses use a device that delivers electrical pulses to your skin, said Sexton, to open up the pores of your skin cells and allow the DNA to get into your skin.
The global coalition of collaborators and partners assembled by Inovio includes the scientific team at the Wistar Institute of the University of Pennsylvania, whose contributions included key research. Inovio Pharmaceuticals received a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the testing of the CELLECTRA 3PSP device to deliver the vaccine.
The DNA vaccine trial lasts 52 weeks. Sexton has routine bloodwork done and has been documenting the process on her Instagram page, @stellavaccinates. She is sharing her journey with the world to educate people who may be curious about a vaccine.
I know it seems fast and that they are rushing it, but I think people should understand that ever since SARS-CoV-1 there was all this research that happened into coronavirus vaccines. That research is what were benefitting from now, Sexton said.
The hope is that future generations will benefit from the research scientists are learning todayall because of people like Sexton.
To me, it felt like something I had to do for my family, something I had to do for my grandparents and my older relatives, but also I really feel that its a patriotic duty, added Sexton.
Other clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine are currently enrolling volunteers. If you are interested in participating, visitcoronaviruspreventionnetwork.org for more information.
Johnson & Johnson plans to start testing its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in youths aged 12 to 18 as soon as possible, a company executive said at a meeting held by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday.
"We plan to go into children as soon as we possibly can, but very carefully in terms of safety," J&J's Dr. Jerry Sadoff told a virtual meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Depending on safety and other factors, the company plans to test in even younger children afterwards, Sadoff, a vaccine research scientist at J&J's Janssen unit, said.
Read more: 5 takeaways from the first FDA coronavirus vaccine meeting
A clinical trial volunteer participates in Johnson & Johnson's study to test a coronavirus vaccine. Janssen
J&J started testing the vaccine in adults in a 60,000-volunteer phase-three study in late September. It had to pause the trial earlier this month because of a serious medical event in one participant. The study resumed last week.
Rival drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has already begun testing the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Germany's BioNTech in children as young as 12.
Read more: Pfizer and Moderna are neck-and-neck in the race to deliver the first effective coronavirus vaccine. Here's everything we know about the timeline and when you might be able to get a shot.
Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday committed $2 million in federal coronavirus aid toward a University of Iowa-Iowa State University collaborative development of a COVID-19 nanovaccine that wont require needles or refrigeration addressing limitations other vaccines face.
Iowas COVID-19 nanovaccine candidate also could provide long-term immunity with a single dose, according to Reynolds, who in a statement said the collaboration will allow ISU and UI along with industry partners to leverage their patented technology.
Nanovaccines work by loading viral proteins into nanoparticles that are about 300 billionths of a meter across and are made from biodegradable polymers, according to Iowa State experts. The pertinent nanoparticles are incorporated into a nasal spray, which can be delivered with just a sniff.
Exposure to the nanovaccine triggers the immune system to attack the virus, according to an ISU news release.
Weve created a team that can innovate and move our ideas beyond the lab, according to Iowa State engineering professor Balaji Narasimhan, director of the ISU-based Nanovaccine Institute and project leader of the collaborative along with Michael Wannemuehler, associate director of the institute. Were ready to meet the urgent need for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Iowa States Nanovaccine Institute was born in 2013 with this kind of global health challenge in mind, Narasimhan said in a statement, referencing the coronavirus pandemic thats infected 44.8 million globally and killed nearly 1.2 million including more than 228,000 in the United States.
With cases surging across the country and in Iowa public health leaders, federal administrators, and politicians alike have been speculating on how soon a vaccine might become available to the public, as researchers work feverishly to develop one.
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Dozens of vaccines are in the works including 11 that have reached final clinical trial stages, according to the New York Times. UI investigators are participating in two vaccine trials, campus officials have said. And UI Hospitals and Clinics is among the states providers that have signed on to administer a vaccine once its available.
UIHC has created a team to develop a plan for vaccine receipt and distribution. The vaccines currently in the later stages of development would require two doses around three or four weeks apart. And how long immunity would last remains unclear along with whether recipients would need annual booster shots.
But UI pathology professor Kevin Legge leading the UI side of the nanovaccine effort, along with co-investigators Stanley Pearlman and Thomas Waldschmidt said his teams prior work using nanovaccines against influenza has shown that we are able to induce a broader and more sustained protective response.
By positioning a persons immunity at the sites of viral entry, a nanovaccine can speed up the response time versus what occurs with current influenza vaccines, according to Legge, who serves as director of the Pathology Research Flow Cytometry Core in the UI Carver College of Medicine.
These funds will allow us to transfer the lessons learned on influenza vaccines toward the creation of a safe, effective and long-lasting mucosal vaccine against SARS-CoV2/COVID-19, Legge said in a statement.
The COVID-19 nanovaccine collaboration draws on Iowa States strengths in nanovaccine research and development, along with its nanovaccine platform technology and animal health, and UI expertise in virology, immunity, and unique animal models, officials said.
The $2 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding, according to Legge, will greatly aid in our efforts to bring safe, effective, mucosal-based nanoparticle vaccines against respiratory virus infections to the community.
In addition to potential benefits the collaboration could have for the nation and world, state officials stressed the implications for Iowas economy as it involves start-ups like Skroot Laboratory Inc., a wireless sensor startup based in Ames; Zeteo Biomedical, a drug delivery device startup based in Austin, Texas; and Southwest Research Institute, a manufacturing-support nonprofit based in San Antonio, Texas.
The work also will bolster Iowas reputation as a biosciences epicenter.
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Todays announcement puts to use Iowas unique assets and attributes in the fight against COVID-19 and fuels economic development by establishing the state as a hub for vaccine development and attracting new investments and companies, Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Finance Authority, said in a statement.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
President Trumps illness from a coronavirus infection last month was the most significant health crisis for a sitting president in nearly 40 years. Yet little remains known about how the virus arrived at the White House and how it spread.
The administration did not take basic steps to track the outbreak, limiting contact tracing, keeping cases a secret and cutting out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The origin of the infections, a spokesman said, was unknowable.
But one standard public health technique may still shed some light: tracking the clusters genetic fingerprints.
To better understand the outbreak, The New York Times worked with prominent geneticists to determine the genetic sequence of viruses that infected two Times journalists believed to have been exposed to the coronavirus as part of their work covering the White House.
The study reveals, for the first time, the genetic sequence of the virus that may have infected Mr. Trump and dozens of others, researchers said. That genome is a crucial clue that may allow researchers to identify where the outbreak originated and whether it went on to infect others across the country.
The White House has not disclosed any effort to conduct similar genetic testing, but the studys results show that it is still possible, even weeks after positive tests. Additional sequencing could help establish the path of the virus through the White House, the role of a possible super-spreading event for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and the origin of an outbreak among the staff of Vice President Mike Pence in the last week or so.
The journalists, Michael D. Shear and Al Drago, both had significant, separate exposure to White House officials in late September, several days before they developed symptoms. They did not spend any time near each other in the weeks before their positive tests.
Mr. Shear traveled with Mr. Trump and other staff on Air Force One on Sept. 26, when Mr. Trump approached within five or six feet without a mask. Mr. Drago covered the Judge Barrett event that day and a news conference the next day near officials who were not wearing masks and later tested positive. Both journalists wore masks.
The viral genomes of the two journalists shared the same distinct pattern of mutations, the research found. Along with their exposure history, the findings suggest that they were infected as part of the broader White House outbreak, said Trevor Bedford, a geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington who led the research team.
These mutations that are possessed by these viruses are quite rare in the United States, Dr. Bedford said. I am highly convinced that these viruses come from the same outbreak or cluster based on their genomes.
The study, which has been posted online but not yet peer reviewed or published in a science journal, followed academic protocols that require genetic samples to be anonymous. Mr. Shear and Mr. Drago chose to disclose their identities for this article.
Viruses constantly mutate, picking up tiny, accidental alterations to their genetic material as they reproduce. Few mutations alter how a virus functions. But by comparing patterns of mutations across many genetic sequences, scientists can construct family trees of a virus, illuminating how it spreads.
The genomes believed by these researchers to be connected to the White House outbreak do not identify a recent geographic source, in part because they are unusual. The ancestors of those viruses spread to the United States from Europe and were circulating widely across the country in April and May, but the trail goes cold after that, according to Dr. Bedford.
Geneticists said the genomes are a key piece of the puzzle that may spur future research to determine where the White House outbreak originated and where it may go next. Scientists collect and publish tens of thousands of new sequences of the coronavirus every month, and additional testing may fill in the picture.
The results show that even weeks after it was identified, the White House outbreak would be better understood by sequencing samples of more people who were infected. Swabs used in positive tests are often kept in labs for months after an initial infection, and genetic material for the coronavirus is stable if stored appropriately.
The C.D.C. routinely relies on genetic testing to help understand Covid-19 outbreaks elsewhere across the country. In a study released on Thursday, the C.D.C. cited genetic sequencing and intensive contact tracing that documented an super-spreading event at a high school retreat in Wisconsin.
But the Trump administration is not known to have conducted its own genetic analysis of people infected in the outbreak. The White House declined to respond to questions on genetic sequencing of Mr. Trump and the cluster of aides and officials who tested positive or became ill.
There is still a remote possibility, Dr. Bedford said, that a previously unseen version of the virus had been circulating undetected in Washington or Northern Virginia and infected both journalists independently from the White House cluster. More testing of the outbreak could eliminate that possibility entirely, he said.
Scientists not involved in the research who reviewed the results agreed with the conclusion that the two samples sharing rare mutations strongly suggested they are part of the same outbreak.
These genomes are probably going to be identical or nearly identical to the genome that infected the president, said Michael Worobey, head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Worobey disputed the White Houses characterization that the source of the outbreak could not be known.
A lot of things are unknowable if you make no effort to know anything about them, and this falls into this category, Dr. Worobey said. All of these things actually can be known if you make the effort and you have the transparency that scientists are desperately trying to promote as we sequence hundreds of thousands of these genomes around the world.
For months, the White House minimized the threat of the virus and eschewed basic safety precautions at official events, like wearing a mask or keeping people six feet apart.
At least 11 people who attended a Rose Garden celebration on Sept. 26 for Judge Barrett, which included an indoor event without masks, became infected with the coronavirus, including Mr. Trump. Additional genetic testing could help more clearly establish the role of that event.
Dr. Bedford and his colleagues were able to obtain a full genetic sequence for the virus that infected Mr. Shear and a partial sequence of the virus that infected Mr. Drago. Several unusual mutations matched in the two samples, sufficient evidence to determine with a very high probability that they were essentially the same genome, Dr. Bedford said.
The work was carried out by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the Hutchinson Center and the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine in Seattle.
The work is convincing, and it is the best way to piece together the progression of such an outbreak, said David Engelthaler, head of the infectious disease branch of the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Arizona, where he and colleagues have sequenced thousands of genomes to track the spread of the coronavirus, including devastating outbreaks at Native American reservations in the state.
Its critical no matter where we are to sequence this virus, Dr. Engelthaler said. Not just at the White House, but at the White Mountain Apache Reservation here in Arizona.
Carl Zimmer contributed reporting.
The National Museum of Mexican Art is paying tribute to those who have died of COVID-19 in its yearly exhibit for the Day of the Dead. A counter displays the number of people who have died. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
The National Museum of Mexican Art is paying tribute to those who have died of COVID-19 in its yearly exhibit for the Day of the Dead. A counter displays the number of people who have died.
On Sunday and Monday, families across Mexico, the U.S. and elsewhere are observing Da de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday that celebrates the lives and honors the memory of those who've passed on.
And each year, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago has a special exhibition for the holiday.
But the coronavirus pandemic has made the usual programming impossible. This year, the museum is going virtual, with a Day of the Dead exhibition that pays tribute to the people in Mexico, the U.S. and around the world who have died of COVID-19.
Catrina Reyna (Fancy Lady Queen) by Jos Alfonso Soteno Fernndez and Juan Jos Soteno Elias of Metepec, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
Catrina Reyna (Fancy Lady Queen) by Jos Alfonso Soteno Fernndez and Juan Jos Soteno Elias of Metepec, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic and wire.
Noche de muertos con arco y ngeles (Night of the Dead with Arch and Angels) by Antonia Felipe Cadelario of Michoacn, Mexico, 2002, polychrome ceramic. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
Noche de muertos con arco y ngeles (Night of the Dead with Arch and Angels) by Antonia Felipe Cadelario of Michoacn, Mexico, 2002, polychrome ceramic.
"It was really important that we still put on this exhibition," says Cesreo Moreno, the museum's chief curator and visual arts director. "Like so many other rituals in our lives, they're more than just a marker of time or season. They give us a sense of the normal. They give us an idea of where we're at."
An electronic counter, updated each day, displays the number of people who have died of COVID-19. In the past, the museum has honored people who died in hurricanes and earthquakes, or those who died in the desert while attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
But memorializing an ongoing tragedy is more difficult than an event that has come and gone, Moreno tells NPR's Michel Martin on All Things Considered.
"Right now, we don't see the end. It's still going. And so it's difficult to really try to commemorate something that you are still in the middle of. So the best way we could think of symbolizing that is with the numbers."
Monja coronada (Crowned Nun) by lvaro de la Cruz Lpez of Capula, Mexico, 2004, polychrome ceramic and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
Monja coronada (Crowned Nun) by lvaro de la Cruz Lpez of Capula, Mexico, 2004, polychrome ceramic and wire.
Catrina candelabro (Fancy Lady Candle Holder) by Pedro Hernndez of Michoacn, Mexico, 2016, ceramic, black paint and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
Catrina candelabro (Fancy Lady Candle Holder) by Pedro Hernndez of Michoacn, Mexico, 2016, ceramic, black paint and wire.
This is the 34th year that the museum has commemorated Da de los Muertos, also called Da de Muertos. But the roots of the holiday itself go back centuries.
"It's a combination of two spiritual belief systems," Moreno says. "It's the ancient indigenous cosmology and the Spanish Catholicism that was brought over with the arrival of the Europeans. And so it's combined together to form a very unique tradition and understanding and rituals that deal with the idea of life after death. And, of course, remembrance of those people here on Earth."
In Mexico, Da de los Muertos can be celebrated by entire communities gathering together at cemeteries to clean and decorate graves of loved ones. There is singing, crying, drinking, eating and playing overnight until the sun rises, when people clean up and go home.
At home, people can build altars and put out ofrendas, or offerings, for those who have passed on.
Flowers and Bread in Tzurumtaro from the project Day of the Dead in Ptzcuaro and Michoacn 2009 (Flores y pan en Tzurumtaro del proyecto Da de muertos en Ptzcuaro y Michoacn) by Ann Murdy of La Jolla, Calif., inkjet print from 2020. National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
Flowers and Bread in Tzurumtaro from the project Day of the Dead in Ptzcuaro and Michoacn 2009 (Flores y pan en Tzurumtaro del proyecto Da de muertos en Ptzcuaro y Michoacn) by Ann Murdy of La Jolla, Calif., inkjet print from 2020.
Sin ttulo (Untitled) by Alfonso Castillo Orta (1944-2009) of Izcar de Matamoros, Mexico, undated, polychrome ceramic and wire. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
Sin ttulo (Untitled) by Alfonso Castillo Orta (1944-2009) of Izcar de Matamoros, Mexico, undated, polychrome ceramic and wire.
"We remember them by remembering what they enjoyed while they were here on Earth," Moreno says. "So if somebody had a specific food that they liked, you would place that out on the altar as an ofrenda. You also put their photographs out, you share stories about them, and it really becomes a time to memorialize these individuals. It's really important that we keep saying their names, we keep telling their stories, and we pass these ideas on to the next generation."
This year, though, like so many other celebrations, the coronavirus pandemic has thwarted the way Da de los Muertos can be celebrated. The pandemic has had an outsize impact on Latinx people in the United States, who are hospitalized from COVID-19 at four times the rate of white Americans.
Moreno says that despite the show being entirely virtual, the tours are from all over the country, which feels, in a way, that they've "reached a little bit further."
"It's not as beautiful as having children walk through the museum galleries and hearing their reactions," he says. "But certainly it is at the heart of it, at the core of it, it is providing this idea of life and death and just sort of a celebration of life. It's a way of understanding death as a part of life. It's not the opposite. It's just part of the same thing."
Novia (Bride) by Alfonso Alejandro Rosas Zapin of Zinapcuaro, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic, wire and string. Michael Tropea/National Museum of Mexican Art hide caption
Novia (Bride) by Alfonso Alejandro Rosas Zapin of Zinapcuaro, Mexico, 2016, polychrome ceramic, wire and string.
Kira Wakeam and William Troop produced and edited the audio version of this story.
A medical worker administers a rapid COVID-19 test in Oakland, Calif., earlier this month. Coronavirus cases are once again surging across much of the country, reaching almost 100,000 on Friday. Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
A medical worker administers a rapid COVID-19 test in Oakland, Calif., earlier this month. Coronavirus cases are once again surging across much of the country, reaching almost 100,000 on Friday.
The U.S. is edging ever closer to 100,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus. According to data released Saturday by Johns Hopkins University, the country added 99,321 cases and 1,030 deaths to its tally on Friday.
It's the greatest single-day increase of the pandemic so far a sentence likely to be repeated in the coming weeks as the U.S. experiences a third surge in infections that's expected to dwarf the previous two. Experts have long warned of a devastating increase with the changing of the seasons, as colder weather forces a pandemic-weary public inside and social distancing restrictions become harder to enforce.
Health experts say the current increase is being driven in large part by people who don't have any symptoms. It's a "silent epidemic," Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the SiriusXM show Doctor Radio Reports on Friday, according to CNN.
The Dakotas are faring particularly poorly. South Dakota is currently seeing some of the fastest growth in the country, with cases up 61% from two weeks ago. Over the past seven days, the state has been averaging 994 new cases per day.
South Dakota has no mask requirement, and its governor has opposed mandating them.
"Those who don't want to wear a mask shouldn't be shamed into wearing one," South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wrote earlier this month. "And government should not mandate it."
North Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin also reported record cases Friday. Cases are up across much of the Midwest, which could have implications for Tuesday's presidential election as key battleground states struggle to contain the virus.
In Wisconsin, more than 20,000 people tested positive over the past week and nearly 200 died, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Four years ago, the state went to Donald Trump. This year, Democratic nominee Joe Biden currently has a more than six-point lead in the polls, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.
"Donald Trump waved the white flag, surrendered to the virus," a masked Biden said at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Friday, echoing statements he has made in several states along the campaign trail. "But the American people don't give up. We don't give in. Unlike Donald Trump, we're not going to surrender to this virus."
At another rally in Wisconsin on Friday, President Trump said the country is "rounding the turn" and promised a vaccine was on its way. As he campaigned from Pennsylvania on Saturday, the nation crossed the tragic toll of more than 230,000 deaths.
Halloween could pose additional dangers. The CDC cautions against "higher-risk activities" such as traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating, crowded indoor costume parties, haunted houses and hayrides with people outside your household. And costume masks are generally no substitute for cloth masks, unless they're made of multiple layers of fabric that entirely cover your mouth and nose, the CDC says.
But a "virtual Halloween costume contest" is just fine, the agency says.
Over all, he thinks the reaction to the virus was overkill, but he also thinks Mr. Trump was wrong to suggest it was nothing to worry about.
He did a terrible job, Mr. Lohoefer said of Mr. Trumps handling of the pandemic. But everybody did a terrible job.
As the virus spread across her facility, Ms. Frazier, the caretaker who witnessed dozens of deaths, said she would see Mr. Trump on television without a mask and grow frustrated. And although she has voted for Republicans and had been a fan of Mr. Trumps when he was on reality television, she began to blame his cavalier response for her worsening situation at work.
Americans, she came to believe, would not act until the virus affected them personally.
If we want to make America great again, then we need to change the political face of our country, she said, noting that she has made a point of discussing her view of Mr. Trump with Republican friends. Ms. Frazier said she would vote for Mr. Biden somewhat begrudgingly, mostly as a vote against Mr. Trump.
I cant even tell this story without having a tear coming down my face, she added. How can you, as the leader of our country, stand in front of our thousands and not show emotion?
Ms. Frazier began to cry as she recalled her final moments in April with a resident with whom she had built a rapport over several years.
During better times, the woman assumed the role of floor matriarch. She was sassy, and would tell you exactly what she felt, Ms. Frazier said. Sometimes, when she had a spare moment during her shift, Ms. Frazier would pop by and say Hey, beautiful! and the woman would beam.
The influence of Bethel Church can be felt all over this economically stressed Northern California city.
In the Redding police officers whose positions the megachurch funded. The once-dying civic auditorium it keeps afloat. The church elder on the Redding City Council.
Bethel can be felt in the trendy new coffee shops and restaurants where young, well-dressed people huddle at tables with open Bibles and nary a mask in sight. It can be felt in parking lots and on sidewalks where believers approach strangers, asking to pray for and heal them.
In downtown Redding on a recent afternoon, Chevon Gilzene, a 25-year-old student at the churchs Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, declared: We want to love the city well.
It is a proclamation that is as disputed as it is acclaimed across Redding, a city of 92,000 where more than 10% of the population attends the nondenominational Christian megachurch.
But anger toward Bethel Church intensified after members and students fueled such a major spike in coronavirus cases that Shasta County briefly fell backward to the most restrictive tier on Californias reopening plan.
Pamphlets in the foyer of a prayer chapel at Bethel Church in Redding. Bethel wields major influence in the city, where more than 10% of the population attend the church.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
In recent weeks, more than 300 COVID-19 cases have been reported by the church and its Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (or BSSM), an unaccredited school focused on prophecy and miracles. It has been the largest cluster of cases in Shasta County.
The outbreak which local officials blame on crowded living conditions for students and leadership publicly questioning the effectiveness of masks has since been brought under control, with fewer than a dozen active cases. But its effects linger.
The perception from that is they dont really care, Shasta County Supervisor Leonard Moty said. What we tried to tell them is, if you really want to be part of the community, you have to do more to respect the community.
Doni Chamberlain is a former newspaper reporter who runs a community news website in Redding that often focuses on Bethel Church and its affiliated Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
The church sits at a nexus of faith, politics and celebrity. It has provoked a debate not just on the influence of its famed pastors and high-profile members who have written books, produced worship albums and have massive social media followings but on how much it is channeling another leader 2,800 miles away: President Trump.
Some religious experts say Bethels actions are indicative of a growing wave in American religion that eschews teachings of traditional denominations and embraces fame and prosperity and charismatic leaders in tune with the conservatism of Trump. It has been especially successful in drawing in young worshipers.
That would be true of Donald Trump as well; he has somehow woven magic with these people, and they think he can give them something they want, said Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.
The churchs worship music label Bethel Music brought in $12 million in revenue in 2017, and its Bethel Media raked in more than $4 million, according to tax returns. Bethel also started Jesus Culture, a revivalist youth ministry with its own record label that hosts conferences around the world.
They make millions and millions and millions of dollars off the back of their congregation and their music, said Joshua Barbour, a former megachurch worship leader, based in Canada, who now hosts a podcast about the inner workings of large churches.
Bethels pastors have embraced Trump. Senior leader Bill Johnson endorsed him in an op-ed in The Christian Post, and senior associate leader and BSSM co-founder Kris Vallotton claimed to prophesy last year that God wanted him reelected.
In an email, Bethel spokesman Aaron Tesauro said the church does not promote or endorse any political candidates [and] have always believed that part of the Christian faith includes praying for those in leadership positions. It has, however, openly opposed California bills seeking to crack down on LGBTQ conversion therapy, which claims to heal people of homosexuality, and encouraged members to contact legislators.
Some former Bethel members say the church has grown more blatantly political in the era of Trump, who has appealed to the Christian right by vowing to repeal the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that bars tax-exempt organizations from engaging in political activity.
Amid the Bethel coronavirus outbreak, Valloton officiated an outdoor wedding for his grandson with more than 100 guests and few masks in the tiny Shasta County community of Shingletown. Facing a swift backlash, he posted a video in which he cited Trumps continuing having outdoor campaigns where he draws thousands of people.
I am willing to sacrifice for my job, my students, my co-workers, my city ... But Im not willing to, like, give up my life, he said. Im not willing to stop living because theres a pandemic.
Johnsons wife, Beni, a Bethel senior leader, said in a now-deleted Instagram video that masks were peoples security blankets and that she refused to shop in a coastal town where she was asked to wear a stupid freaking mask that doesnt work.
Tesauro told The Times that Bethel has strictly enforced health measures, including halting indoor church services and requiring masks, social distancing and COVID-19 tests from all BSSM students and staff before classes started.
But it has been difficult, and confusing, he said, to publicly separate Bethel and its nearly 800 employees from the public messages of a few prominent personalities, each with their own social media followings. Individuals do not always speak for the broader institution, he said.
People gather at the Sundial Bridge in Redding at dusk. Redding is a conservative stronghold and home to the Bethel Church and its affiliated School of Supernatural Ministry.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
Among Bethels most high-profile attendees is singer Sean Feucht, a volunteer worship leader at the church and failed Republican congressional candidate who led a nationwide Let Us Worship tour in defiance of health mandates, drawing thousands of people to Christian music concerts, including at the National Mall.
Bethel Church formally distanced itself from Feuchts shows after he hosted a crowded gathering at Reddings Sundial Bridge this summer, saying the church did not sponsor or pay for them. But to the public, the distinction was muddled. Beni Johnson touted his tour on Instagram. And Feucht, in an Instagram caption, called Bill Johnson a champion to us on this journey.
Some Let Us Worship posts have been censored by Facebook as possibly linked to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory that alleges Trump is battling a syndicate of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who control the federal government.
Feucht, who has said the allegation is false, did not respond to a request for comment.
Founded as an Assemblies of God church in 1952, Bethel split with the denomination in 2006. It now occupies a hilltop campus at the end of driveway lined by dozens of international flags representing the home countries of BSSM students. The school is credited with singlehandedly increasing diversity in Redding, where 78% of the population is white.
In church services, attendees have reported supernatural glory clouds, in which feathers and gold dust fell from the ceiling. Last year, parishioners tried to resurrect Olive Heiligenthal, the 2-year-old daughter of a Bethel worship leader, after she died in her sleep. Thousands of Instagram posts were shared with #WakeUpOlive.
The exterior of a large building on the campus of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
Its crazy to me because this doesnt even feel like my city or my town that I grew up in, said Donna Zibull, who has lived in Redding for five decades.
Zibulls grandson, Orian LeBlanc, died in 2014 after collapsing on the street in front of a Bethel members home. LeBlanc, who had asthma and an undiagnosed heart condition, was pronounced brain dead at a hospital.
But for four days, Zibull said, the church members came, uninvited, into his room in the intensive care unit. They spoke in tongues, and one member said he could see God in the room. Zibull and her daughter eventually asked hospital staff to remove them.
On a recent Sunday, 20-year-old Ashley Morse, a third-year BSSM student, sat alone in the churchs Alabaster Prayer House, working on a laptop. Growing up in San Diego, her family listened to Bethel Music, and her mother eventually began listening to online sermons. Morses older sister enrolled in the school, followed by Morse. This year, her parents are first-year students.
Coming here has really, really, really helped me cultivate that relationship with Jesus that I didnt really have before, she said. I just grew so much ... and knowing what his voice sounds like, knowing how he speaks to me. Before, I kind of viewed him as kind of like an upset dad.
Gilzene, the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry student, wore a mask as she helped shoot a video of a dancer with fellow BSSM pupils. The Toronto native accustomed to more strict COVID rules in Canada had planned to get her masters degree in music but stumbled upon the school after listening to Bethel Music and attending worship conferences.
Gilzene lives with six other young women and contracted a mild case of COVID-19 in September. Gilzene and her roommates, she said, self-isolated immediately. While its difficult to control what people do in their personal lives, school leadership has consistently told students to take safety precautions on campus out of concern for the broader city, she said.
People cant come into the building and see that, she said. Speculation naturally happens. It breaks my heart that it does, but I completely understand and empathize with it.
Traffic streams through Redding, a conservative stronghold and home to the Bethel Church and its affiliated School of Supernatural Ministry. Members of the church and school have fueled a major coronavirus outbreak in Redding, with nearly 300 cases reported.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
Annelise Pierce, a former BSSM student, and her family moved to Redding a decade ago from Uganda, where they did educational aid work with a Christian organization. They had planned to return to the U.S. for a year or so for the sake of their young children, as Ebola began spreading in their town and rebel action grew more concerning. Some friends recommended Bethel.
As a student, Pierce was disturbed by the feeling that you could not question pastors. Vallaton, she said, seemed to be making it up on the fly, claiming, for example, that he woke up in the middle of the night craving a milkshake and that that was a message from God.
Among members, we met a lot of doctors and professors and really high-quality, thoughtful, intelligent people. But also a ton of really young people searching desperately.
Her family left the church as it grew more political, and she has since abandoned the Christian faith. At a Redding Starbucks, she spoke quietly in a mask, looking around because, she said, members are everywhere.
Doni Chamberlain, an independent journalist, writes regularly about the church. The 64-year-old lost her mother to suicide as a child. She and her sisters were taken in by foster parents who attended Bethel, which was then still an Assemblies of God church.
Church members, she said, told her her mother was in hell. When she and her twin sister were 12, church elders laid their hands upon them trying to cast out demons because they had a form of dystonia, a disorder that causes spasms and convulsions. Their medication was taken away, and they were told that if they believed in God, they would stop having spasms.
Chamberlain, who left the church 42 years ago, said its not hard for to spot church members about town. She plays a game she calls Bethel Bingo.
If youre in a parking lot and see a crowd of young people, well-dressed, praying around a homeless guy, you go: Bethel! she said. God help someone with a crutch because they will converge upon you.
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) Twelve new COVID-19 deaths were reported on Sunday as active cases of the coronavirus are down in South Dakota, according to thedepartment of healths update.
The death toll is now at 437. The new deaths were five women and seven men with four in the 60-69 age range, two in the 70-79 age range and six in the 80+ age range.
There has been 214 deaths in October, the deadliest month of the pandemic so far.
On Sunday, 1,332 new coronavirus cases were announced, bringing the states total case count to 47,324, up from Saturday (45,992). There were 1,221 new PCR cases and 111 new antigen cases for 1,332 new total cases. Total recovered cases are now at 33,749, up from Saturday (31,194).
Active cases are now at 13,138, down from Saturday (14,373).
Current hospitalizations for COVID-19 are now at 421, up from Saturday (415). Total hospitalizations, which includes only South Dakota residents, is now at 2,721, up from Saturday (2,683).
Total persons tested negative is now at 214,841, up from Saturday (213,540).
There were 2,633 new persons tested reported on Sunday. The test-positivity rate for Sunday was 50-percent.
