Governor Andrew M. Cuomo todayannounced 7 million diagnostic tests for COVID-19 have been conducted to date in New York State, and that the number of positive cases yesterday 0.78 percent was below 1 percent for the ninth day in a row.
"Our numbers reflect the hard work of New Yorkers, and as other states across the nation see surging cases, our numbers remain steadily low. For more than a week, we've seen our positivity rate stay below 1 percent, and to date New York has done 7 million teststhese are remarkable accomplishments that New Yorkers should be proud of,"Governor Cuomo said."New York State is demonstrating that a response guided by science and data - not politics or opinion - is the only effective way to deal with this virus. But, we must not become complacent and risk slipping backwards everyone must remember to wear their masks, socially distance, wash their hands regularly, and stay New York Tough."
Yesterday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 1,170 establishments in New York City and Long Island and observed 33 establishments that were not in compliance with state requirements. A county breakdown of yesterday's observed violations is below:
Today's data is summarized briefly below:
Of the 77,692 test results reported toNew York State yesterday, 607, or 0.78 percent, were positive. Each region's percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:
REGION
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Capital Region
0.6%
0.5%
1.2%
CentralNew York
0.9%
0.9%
0.7%
Finger Lakes
0.8%
0.5%
0.5%
Long Island
0.8%
0.9%
0.8%
Mid-Hudson
0.9%
0.7%
0.8%
Mohawk Valley
0.6%
0.5%
0.3%
New York City
0.9%
1.0%
0.9%
North Country
0.3%
0.2%
0.3%
Southern Tier
0.6%
0.2%
0.1%
WesternNew York
0.7%
1.3%
0.9%
TheGovernor also confirmed 607 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 425,508 confirmed cases inNew York State. Of the 425,508 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
County
Total Positive
New Positive
Albany
2,654
11
Allegany
80
0
Broome
1,166
1
Cattaraugus
171
1
Cayuga
164
1
Chautauqua
263
0
Chemung
189
1
Chenango
218
0
Clinton
132
1
Columbia
552
1
Cortland
97
0
Delaware
107
0
Dutchess
4,686
A new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found adults overall are feeling mental health impacts of COVID-19, and that young adults, racial and ethnic minorities, and essential workers reported disproportionately worse mental health and increased thoughts of suicide.
Dr. Ken Duckworth told Boston Public Radio on Monday that the transition from a "short-term mindset" to the "marathon" thinking around the effects of COVID-19 can be hard to contend with, but telehealth amid the pandemic may be able to reach more people.
Ken Duckworth is the Senior Medical Director for Behavioral Health at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and the Medical Director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On With Your Day.
1. Postal service
2. Coronavirus
3. Democratic National Convention
4. Russia investigation
5. Belarus
Big food brands like Impossible and Shake Shack really want you to keep eating their stuff while you're at home
New Jersey counties are under quarantine for another reason: invasive bugs known as the spotted lanternflies
"This is going to be a knock-down, drag-out. And we're ready."
The novel coronavirus pandemic has affected people differently.
Most patients fight and recover from COVID-19, even as the disease claims the lives of many others.
Furthermore, the coronavirus has affected our daily lives in the Rio Grande Valley in ways both small and large, changing how we work and how we interact with our friends and families.
Here are stories, the first part of a weekly series called the COVID Chronicles, which will share personal stories of how the pandemic is affecting our communities. If you would like to share your experience, email us at news@themonitor.com.
EXPRESSING THANKS
Day after day, traveler buses outside hospitals are becoming a common sight in the Rio Grande Valley.
In Brownsville, the buses have been seen for at least two weeks, and photos of them have been shared on Facebook.
They arent your ordinary metro buses, carrying people from bus stop to bus stop. These buses travel up and down the expressway and finish their trips at Valley hospitals.
They are transporting healthcare workers who have traveled to South Texas to help care of the sick during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Cora J. McWhorter said she learned that her sisters coworker had traveled to the Valley to work with coronavirus patients.
I found out which hospital and hotel shes at and decided to take her dinner, McWhorter said, explaining she wanted to express her thanks for these volunteers.
Laura B. Martinez
TESTS ARENT PERFECT
Irene Castorena first knew she had the virus when she started to develop a sore throat. As a 25-year-old with no pre-existing conditions, she developed shortness of breath, body aches, loss of taste and smell and fever.
The sore throat I developed felt very different, she said. It did not feel like the one we always get when we are getting sick of a cold. It was something that didnt hurt when you were swallowing, it would just hurt.
Irene took an antibody test, which came back negative because her body was still infected and had not developed a sufficient amount of antibodies yet. Eventually, she took another antibody test, which came positive, and three swap tests: a negative, a positive and another negative.
Even when I had the negative results, I still stayed home and did not go out anywhere, she said. It felt strange to us that I received the negative results because I had just tested positive in the antibody test, so I decided to schedule another swap test and this time it came back positive.
Irene said all of the days she was sick and showing symptoms her husband was with her all the time and never got infected or tested positive.
Even though her husband did not get sick, she still advises the community to take all the necessary precautions because the virus is very real.
We have to be careful and we all have to do our part, as a community, because we are all connected, she said. For only one person that is irresponsible and does not want to follow guidelines like wearing a face mask, a lot of people can be affected.
Irene said she did not leave her house or have contact with anyone for the six weeks that she was in quarantine. She said she was worried of putting others at risk who may be more vulnerable and may not have a strong immune system to fight the virus.
How sad would it be to know that just because you were irresponsible, someone died, she said.
Nubia Reyna
NEW ENTRIES AT COURT
The impacts of the coronavirus on those who work in the criminal justice system, and those being prosecuted by it, have steadily revealed itself as the pandemic continues.
In mid-March, the courts in Hidalgo County didnt shut down, but proceedings slowed to a crawl. As weeks changed to months, the courts adapted to video-conferencing and provided hearings to the parties and the public via YouTube or Zoom.
But the impacts are far beyond procedural.
Minute entries in multiple cases reveal defendants have been quarantined and attorneys have missed hearings because of hospitalizations. Court records dont always indicate why, but with the prevalence of coronavirus in Hidalgo County, one can guess.
Theres even a new entry seen in multiple court cases: COVID CASE.
Mark Reagan
A COUPLES LOVE, HEARTBREAK
In July, COVID-19 took the lives of Dora Garcia Jaime and her husband, A.C. Beto Jaime, leaving the Pharr couples family of six children reeling.
They were something of royalty to those who knew them: A.C., short for Adalberto Casares, was the mayor of the city during the 1970s and later pioneered racewalking opportunities for Rio Grande Valley youth;
Dora was considered a pillar of faith by her sons and daughters, whose laugh resonated and whose nurturing habits brought balance to a family filled with character.
But perhaps there was no more recognizable characteristic of A.C. and Dora than their love for each other.
They truly had a love affair that people dream of and people think is impossible, Doreen Morgan, one of the Jaimes six children, gushed about her parents.
Such was their love for each other that A.C. said hed never leave Doras side, and planned to be there during her final moments.
Then COVID-19 happened.
A.C. grew sick and, at one point, needed to be hospitalized.
An ambulance arrived one July day, placed A.C. inside and proceeded to head for a hospital, prompting Dora, who never wanted to be separated from her husband, to run after the ambulance, and fell and hit her head.
While in a local hospital fighting to breathe, A.C. used whatever breath he had left asking for his wife, concerned since she, too, had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus that has already killed nearly 1,500 in the Rio Grande Valley and 168,000 in the country.
He died on July 23. Dora died on July 25. They were both 84.
Though the circumstances are tragic, the legacy they left behind in their children keep A.C. and Dora together in spirit a bond that Doreen has said will live on forever.
Michael Rodriguez
LONDON Barraged by protests from angry teachers, parents and students, the British government has abandoned the improvised college-entrance exam system it cobbled together for schools in England after the pandemic made traditional testing impossible.
Critics said the governments approach discriminated against economically disadvantaged students and pointed to the results as proof. When they were released, tens of thousands of students learned that their preliminary grades had been lowered.
On Monday, after insisting it would not make changes to the complex grading system, the government scrapped it completely.
I am sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve, the British education secretary, Gavin Williamson, said in a statement. He said it had been an extraordinarily difficult year for young people.
It was the latest policy reversal from a government already much criticized for its handling of the coronavirus. It was also a fresh setback for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who bowed to overwhelming political pressure to retreat, agreeing to the shift during talks by phone from a vacation in Scotland and then leaving it to his education secretary to make the apologies.
The problem began after Britain went into lockdown and schools were closed to most pupils. That made it impossible to hold the standardized examinations, known as A-levels, that are the main factor in determining college entrance.
Instead, teachers provided predicted scores based on students previous work and practice A-levels. These estimates were then reviewed by an education regulator, Ofqual, which used an algorithm that took into account each schools past exam performance.
The architects of this system regarded teachers as generally too optimistic about the prospects of their students. Accepting teachers predictions at face value, regulators worried, could lead to grade inflation.
When the review was over, around 40 percent of the predicted grades around 280,000 in all were downgraded. Only about 2 percent of marks increased.
The main victims, said critics, were bright pupils from less affluent backgrounds whose schools had not previously performed well.
On Monday, Mr. Williamson agreed to accept teachers predictions, acknowledging that the process of allocating grades has resulted in more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process.
The same approach will also be adopted for another exam, the GCSE, which is taken by students around age 16. Those results are scheduled to be announced this week.
The decision is likely to be greeted with relief by those who argued that any other course of action would be a betrayal of the prime ministers promise to level up opportunities across Britain.
But the debacle cast a harsh light on the competence of a government widely criticized for its slowness to order a coronavirus lockdown, for delays in setting up its track-and-trace system, and for an erratic approach to quarantine rules for those arriving in the country.
Under Mr. Johnsons leadership, Britain has suffered one of the sharpest economic contractions in Europe, as well as one of its highest death tolls from the pandemic.
A previous plan to get most younger children back to school in England before the summer break was abandoned, and the furor over examinations bears many of the hallmarks of a government slow to identify looming problems or even to recognize the warning signs of a political crisis.
In this case, Mr. Johnson initially defended the algorithmic review system as robust and dependable, despite the immediate outcry, and even when Scotland reversed course after similar protests last week.
Over the weekend, Mr. Williamson insisted that there would be no U-turn, no change.
Guidance on how to appeal the downgraded examination results was withdrawn only hours after it was issued, compounding the confusion.
Incompetence has become this governments watchword, said Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, in a Twitter post.
Yet the pressure also came from Conservative lawmakers who believe that young people have suffered significantly from the lockdown and that downgrading so many results was simply unfair.
This group of young people have lost out on so much already, we must ensure that bright, capable students can progress on their next step, wrote one government minister, Penny Mordaunt, on Twitter.
The conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph newspaper was scathing in an editorial, declaring that the exams fiasco in England beggars belief, given the time authorities have had to prepare.
Even if they had failed to do so until recently, they were given a clear warning signal from Scotland that a storm was looming, the editorial said. Yet, rather than change tack, they sailed straight into it with calamitous consequences.
The crisis raises questions about the future of Mr. Williamson, who made his name as chief whip, responsible for party discipline, under former Prime Minister Theresa May. In that position Mr. Williamson reveled in his reputation as a Machiavellian political fixer and kept a pet tarantula named Cronus in his office.
But after being promoted to defense secretary he was fired by Mrs. May, accused of leaking details of discussions in the National Security Council. He was restored to the cabinet by Mr. Johnson when he became prime minister last summer.
Few observers would argue that things have gone well for Mr. Williamson in his latest job.
Before the government backed down on the exams Monday, one veteran Conservative politician and former education secretary, Kenneth Baker, warned that the crisis risked alienating not just those young people deprived of college places but also their parents, grandparents, friends and relatives.
The damage is absolutely enormous, Mr. Baker, now a member of the House of Lords, told Times Radio.
PLANT CITY - One month after contracting COVID-19 and recovering in a hospital room, Pastor Carlos Pagans breathing is not the same as before.
Sometimes he tires quickly. Sometimes he needs a couple of seconds to catch his breath.
This is not easy, said Pagan, 36, who is from Puerto Rico.
Pagan is a husband, a father of four children and the principal pastor of The Nazarene, a Christian church in Brandon with a high concentration of Latino parishioners.
With Hispanics accounting for a disproportionately large number of the most severe cases of coronavirus, Pagan and other local Latino pastors, spiritual advisers and advocates are using their experiences -- which in some cases includes contracting the virus -- to keep their vulnerable congregations and communities safe.
They use social media, community virtual meetings and partnerships with other congregations to keep their members at a distance. Nationwide, Latinos are nearly three times more likely to have died from coronavirus compared to whites when age is taken into account, according to the non-partisan APM Research Lab.
Pagan said doctors gave him a 20 percent chance of surviving after he got sick in July, so he is well aware of the perils.
When I got sick I had thoughts of panic and fear, but in the end I understood that God had other plans for me, said Pagan. So it was and thats my message.
Pagan said he did not contract the disease at his church but from a friend who tested positive. By June, Pagan had stopped mass in person as a precaution and reinforced his recommendations through social media to keep his people safe.
During all this time I have been very responsible with the use of masks, gloves and disinfectants, said Pagan. But surprises are never lacking and my illness has been one of them.
Pagan believes the disease began on July 2 when he felt feverish and had a slight cough. Four days later he was treated at Lakeland Regional Hospital. He was sent home because doctors determined his condition did not require hospitalization. They told him to isolate but it was too late: His wife Karol, 36, and two of their children, Milianys, 14, and Isaiah, 12, had the disease, too, though they suffered only mild symptoms. The youngest, Kaylianys, 4, had a skin rash.
On July 8 Pagan was officially diagnosed with COVID-19. He came down with more fever and could hardly breathe on July 10. That night his wife called an ambulance.
"I was literally suffocating," Pagan said. "I couldn't speak."
Pagan was hospitalized for 10 days. His lungs were compromised with severe pneumonia. One doctor told him intubation was his last chance.
They told me that I had no other options and that my health was getting worse, Pagan said. It was a very strong blow because you think something like this will never happen to you.
Pagan considers his recovery a miracle because hours before his intubation, a nurse started to work with him to improve his breathing. The intubation was postponed while he continued under observation. A week later doctors removed the oxygen supplement that Pagan was receiving.
Now his life experience is helping him to communicate with his congregation about the coronavirus and staying safe and secure. One of his first Facebook videos, which has more than 80,000 views, was recorded in the hospital where he was admitted. Pagan said he does the same thing at his business, My Town Barber Shop, that he opened 13 years ago in Plant City.
"God is good, he protects us, but we have to do our part, too," said Pagan. "Faith and prudence go on the same hand."
Two Sundays ago, Pagan returned to his church to meet with a group of eight people. All precautions were in place, said Pagan. That included asking congregants to sit 6 feet apart, wear masks and to use disinfectant spray to wipe down the area around them.
The state Department of Health has urged places of worship to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Masks are extremely important when social distancing is difficult but are not required at Hillsborough churches, according to a county order passed June 29. The order only requires people to wear masks in businesses open to the public.
Nationwide more than 650 cases have been linked to at least 40 religious facilities and places of worship during the pandemic, according to tracking by the New York Times.
With schools and universities now poised to open, recommendations on how to minimize risk represents the new normal that people will likely need to follow for some time, said Dr. Marissa Levine, director of the Center for Leadership in Public Health Practice at the University of South Florida.
"That means that our most effective tools for combating this virus are physical distancing, using adequate cloth face coverings and practicing effective hygiene and disinfection," said Levine.
Many people have incorporated those practices into their day-to-day activities and, as a result, Levine said we have begun to see decreased community transmission.
This is not political, just practical and represents the efforts of a cohesive community working together against a common threat, said Levine.
Herbert Morataya, 51, also is a COVID-19 survivor. Like Pagan, he decided to share his experience to support his community in the fight against new infections.
It is important during and after the virus because you never know if it will come for us, he said.
Originally from Guatemala, Morataya is a pastor and spiritual adviser at Manantial de Vida, Fe y Esperanza ( Spring of Life, Faith and Hope) in Plant City. He was hospitalized on June 19 at St. Josephs Hospital. Morataya for 22 days was connected to an assisted breathing system. His wife Maira, 50, and his son Herbert Jr., 23, were diagnosed with COVID-19, too, but they only had a slight cough.
Morataya believes that he could have been infected when he was distributing vegetables and fruits in Orlando.
At some point I had contact with someone and maybe I touched my eyes with my fingers because I have cataracts, Morataya said. There is more than one possibility but it didnt happen in my church.
Morataya said he closed his church at the end of March but he brings his weekly mass to Facebook to help people feel connected. He said he emphasize the value of family and the importance to follow measures to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
Morataya said that when he was in the hospital he thought about his mission as a human being and pastor.
The days passed and my thought was: God, it is possible that I will die through this disease. But, what do you want to teach me?
With that in mind Morataya told himself that if he survived he would work hard to share his message.
Today I tell each person who is outside to take care of themselves, since the virus does not respect age or origin, said Morayata. It is real and I was affected.
HOW CORONAVIRUS IS SPREADING IN FLORIDA: Find the latest numbers for your county, city or zip code.
LATEST ON CORONAVIRUS: Six things weve learned about the coronavirus since March.
MASK UPDATE: Find out where you have to wear a mask in Tampa Bay
GET THE DAYSTARTER MORNING UPDATE: Sign up to receive the most up-to-date information.
THE CORONAVIRUS SCRAPBOOK: We collected your stories, pictures, songs, recipes, journals and more to show what life has been like during the pandemic.
HAVE A TIP?: Send us confidential news tips
Were working hard to bring you the latest news on the coronavirus in Florida. This effort takes a lot of resources to gather and update. If you havent already subscribed, please consider buying a print or digital subscription.
The biotechnology company Novavax will soon begin the second phase of human testing for its COVID-19 vaccine.
The so-called phase 2b clinical trial will include a group of 2,665 healthy adults in South Africa, as well as a group of 240 adults with HIV who are considered medically stable but whose immune responses may differ from individuals without HIV, according to a statement released by Novavax on Aug. 17. HIV advocacy groups have pushed for people with HIV to be included in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, as companies like Moderna and Pfizer initially said they would exclude volunteers with the infection, Science Magazine reported.
In a previous phase 1 safety trial of the Novavax vaccine, healthy volunteers given two doses of the vaccine showed only mild side effects, such as headache, fatigue, and tenderness or pain at the injection site, according to a report posted Aug. 6 to the preprint server medRxiv. According to this preliminary data, which has not been peer-reviewed, all of the phase 1 participants also generated neutralizing antibodies, which can prevent the virus from entering cells, after receiving a second dose of the vaccine. Novavax will continue to evaluate this immune response in the phase 2b trial in South Africa, as well as a phase 2 trial to be organized in the U.S. and Australia "in the near future," according to the statement.
Related: Here are the most promising coronavirus vaccine candidates out there
"Because South Africa is experiencing a winter surge of COVID-19 disease, this important Phase 2b clinical trial has the potential to provide an early indication of efficacy, along with additional safety and immunogenicity data for [the vaccine]," Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, said in the statement. South Africa is the world's fifth worst affected country in terms of COVID-19 cases and related deaths, with 583,653 reported cases and 11,677 deaths as of Aug. 17, Reuters reported.
The Novavax trial in South Africa will be funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is providing a $15 million grant, and The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is providing funds to manufacture doses of the vaccine needed for the trial, according to the statement.
Related: 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history
The vaccine, called NVX-CoV2373, contains proteins derived from the coronavirus spike protein, a structure that juts off the virus's surface and plugs into cells to cause infection, according to the statement. In general, Novavax designs vaccines by attaching such proteins to microscopic particles that can be delivered into the body to trigger an immune response, according to The New York Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker.
Novavax also added an adjuvant to the vaccine an extra ingredient that helps rally immune cells into action. Specifically, the adjuvant in NVX-CoV2373 contains a saponin, or a chemical compound derived from plants, according to the statement. Saponins can help summon immune cells to the injection site, where they spot foreign proteins, like the spike protein, and "present" those proteins to T cells; these T cells then remember what the proteins look like should a vaccinated person ever be exposed to the virus, according to a 2016 report in the journal Nature Communications.
Originally published on Live Science.
A U.S. based vaccine development company is set tobegin thesecond phase of human testing for its COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa, which isin the midst ofa surge in coronavirus cases.
Novavax said in a statementthat theclinical trialswill include 2,665 healthy adults in South Africa.
The trials will also compare the vaccine's effect on 240 medically stable adults withHIV whoseimmune responses may differ from individuals without HIV.
Preliminary findings from the first trial showed people receiving the two doses generated neutralizing antibodies, which can prevent the virus from entering cells, after receiving a second dose of the vaccine.
Along with evaluating the immune response in the phase 2b trial in South Africa,Novavaxwill also organize a phase 2 trial in the United States and Australiain the near future.
In Novavax's statement, Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax said, South Africa's surgein COVID-19 cases lends importance tothe Phase2b clinical trial,with thepotential to provide an early indication of efficacy, along with additional safety and immunogenicity data for the vaccine.
South Africa is the fifth most affected country worldwide, with more than 583,000coronaviruscases and more than 11,600 deaths.
Novavax said the trial in South Africa is made possible in part from a $15 million grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovationsis providingmoney tomanufacture doses of the vaccine needed for the trial.
Last month, the U.S.government awardedNovavaxa $1.6 billion contract to cover testing and development ofa vaccinefor the coronavirus in the United States with the goal of providing 100 million doses by January.
Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital today announced the start of Phase 3 of the Pfizer vaccine trial at the hospital. This groundbreaking study is intended to be one of several vaccine trials to be undertaken in the hopes of finding the most scientifically validated vaccine in the shortest amount of time.
The study is a collaboration between BioNTech SE and Pfizer using modified RNA. This is a novel way to create a vaccine for use in humans. Rather than using the part or whole of the actual virus in an inactive form to create immunity, this vaccine candidate uses a genetic code (modified RNA) to make the body generate proteins that resemble the SARS CoV-2 virus spike protein, thereby causing development of antibodies against it. Antibodies against the spike protein, a projection from the COVID virus that allows it to attack cells and infect a person, may block the infection from taking hold if the body comes in contact with the virus. In Phases 1 and 2 of the trial, this novel vaccine has proven safe and effective in generating an appropriate immune response. This third phase hopes to show that it can prevent infection.
I am very excited that Yale New Haven Hospital and the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI) are undertaking this novel vaccine trial, said Principal Investigator Dr. Onyema E. Ogbuagu, YNHH Infectious Disease physician and associate professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. The earlier trial phases have been very encouraging showing that when injected, the vaccine is tolerated well and generates the appropriate immune response that has the potential to protect humans from COVID-19.
The YCCI Cultural Ambassadors program is playing a large role in educating the public on clinical trials, building on past success to address cultural and operational issues to encourage a diverse and underserved patient population to participate. The Cultural Ambassador program is a partnership between YCCI, the Connecticut AME Zion Churches, and Junta for Progressive Action. Created 10 years ago, this group has had great success in engaging populations of color in clinical research. When we started talking about clinical trials in our community, people of color represented only 3%6% of the participants in clinical trials, said the Rev. Elvin Clayton, pastor, Walters Memorial AME Zion Church. Now we see between 30%-50% participation, and in some trials, over 80%.
The Cultural Ambassadors are now sharing information about the Pfizer COVID vaccine trial with the goal of ensuring that the final vaccine will be effective for everyone, regardless of their cultural or ethnic background. Our community has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, said the Rev. Dr. Leroy Perry, pastor of St. Stephens AME Zion Church. We will be working harder than ever to ensure that the underserved community has access to this clinical trial and when ready, the vaccine will be made affordable to those who are disproportionately affected.
The trial is a randomized placebo-controlled trial which means that of the planned nearly 30,000 enrollees, half will receive the vaccine and half will receive a placebo. If success is seen early on in the trial, all participants will be given the vaccine and all enrollees will be followed for two years. All participants must be healthy, willing to comply with scheduled visits and be between the ages of 18 and 85 years. To learn more about the trial or to sign up to participate, visit the Clinical Trials at Yale website.
This vaccine trial is yet another example of the importance of academic medical centers, said Dr. Thomas Balcezak, executive vice president and chief clinical officer, Yale New Haven Health. Our partnership with the Yale School of Medicine and YCCI creates opportunity to bring cutting-edge care and therapeutics to our community.
This vaccine is being developed at a record rate due to the rapid proliferation of COVID-19 around the globe. But despite the pace, there will be no sacrifice to safety, which is forefront in the minds of the research team, YNHH and YCCI. Prior to COVID-19, the fastest development of a vaccine was to inoculate against the mumps, which took four years.
Philadelphia reportedly will be among of the first places to receive doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, which could become available later this year or early in 2021, and in turn the city will influence how the vaccine is distributed to the rest of the country.
Since early August, city officials have been in talks with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to develop plans for distributing a coronavirus vaccine. In addition to Philadelphia, the CDC is coordinating with four state governments to also devise distribution plans in those locations,the New York Timesreported Sunday.
The four states involved are California, Florida, Minnesota and North Dakota.
According to the Times report, Philadelphia and the states were chosen because they present unique challenges for what will be the largest vaccination campaign ever attempted by the federal government:
"Each has a different demographic, ethnic makeup and population density, as well as its own infrastructure to store and deliver doses of vaccine. State and city officials are advising the C.D.C. and the Department of Defense, which are coordinating the federal response and determining how to most efficiently deliver doses of vaccine to the individuals who are most vulnerable to Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus."
The CDC informed Philly of its selection in a letter dated Aug. 4, according to the Philadelphia Health Department.The plans developed by Philadelphia and the four states involved in the pilot program will be used to create a model for the logistics that work and do not work in distributing the vaccine.
The letter notes that there are multiple potential vaccines in development, and limited numbers of COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to be available by the fall.The city's plan should prioritize vaccinating health care and other essential workersand the staff and residents in long-term care facilities.
Some of the potential vaccines will require that people receivetwo doses, each administeredseveral weeks apart, according to the CDC's letter, and Philadelphia's plan must a detail how health officials will remind people to come receive subsequent booster doses of vaccine.
As part ofOperation Warp Speed, the federal government's push to quicklydevelop a COVID-19 vaccine and theraputics, the Trump administration is expecting to deliver tens of millions of vaccine doses by early next year.
Until a vaccine becomes widely-available, health officials are asking the public to wear face masks and practice social distancing.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends everyone wear face coverings when outside their homes. The masks do not protect the person who wears them; rather, they prevent sick individuals including those who do not have symptoms from spreading the coronavirus.
Since the onset of the public health crisis, Philadelphia has had 32,348 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,717 people die from COVID-19.
