Tag: pandemic

Biden to receive first dose of coronavirus vaccine on Monday

The Hill logo

President-elect Joe Biden and incoming first lady Jill Biden will receive their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine publicly on Monday, according to his transition team.

Incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki briefed reporters on the news in a call Friday. The development comes as other high-ranking government officials, including Vice President Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) received the vaccine on Friday.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be getting her vaccine the week after Biden gets it, the transition team said, with medical experts advising that they stagger the first doses.  Continue reading.

Vice President Pence receives COVID-19 vaccine live on television

Axios logo

Vice President Mike Pence, second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams received Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine live on television Friday.

Why it matters: The vice president is the highest-ranking U.S. official to be vaccinated — a move intended to boost public confidence about the vaccine’s safety. He must still receive the second dose of the vaccine in order for it to be fully effective.

What they’re saying: “Karen and I wanted to step forward and take this vaccine to assure the American people that while we cut red tape, we cut no corners,” Pence said in a speech following his vaccination. “I didn’t feel a thing,” he added. Continue reading.

States report confusion as government reduces vaccine shipments, while Pfizer says it has ‘millions’ of unclaimed doses

Washington Post logo

Officials in multiple states said they were alerted late Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine had been drastically cut for next week, sparking widespread confusion and conflicting statements from Pfizer and federal officials about who was at fault.

The reduction prompted concern in health departments across the country about whether Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine accelerator program, could distribute doses quickly enough to meet the target of delivering first shots to 20 million people by year’s end.

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans, said the revised estimates were the result of states’ requesting an expedited timeline for locking in their allocations for the following week; notification of how many doses they could order each week was consequently advanced from Friday to Tuesday. Since Pfizer is producing doses daily, the official said, fewer doses were available Tuesday than will be available on Friday. Continue reading.

Congress set to blow past shutdown deadline amid coronavirus talks

The Hill logo

Congress is barreling toward a rare weekend session as lawmakers race to wrap up a sweeping agreement to fund the government and provide badly needed coronavirus relief. 

Leadership is homing in on a deal that would attach roughly $900 billion in coronavirus relief to a $1.4 trillion bill to fund the government until Oct. 1, 2021, in what is the last major piece of legislation Congress needs to pass before it wraps up its work for the year. 

But lawmakers appear poised to drive over Friday night’s funding cliff, when the government will shut down at least temporarily without new legislation. Even if talks wrap by Friday night it’s expected to take days for Congress to pass it.  Continue reading.

Incoming White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond tests positive for COVID-19

Axios logo

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the incoming White House senior adviser for President-elect Joe Biden, has tested positive for COVID-19 and will self-quarantine for 14 days, the Biden-Harris transition team announced in a statement on Thursday.

What they’re saying: “Richmond was not in close contact, as defined by the CDC, with the President-elect. President-elect Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected,” per a statement from transition spokesperson Kate Bedingfield. Biden tested negative for the coronavirus on Thursday.

The big picture: The transition team said that Richmond traveled to Georgia for a campaign event with Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, but did not come in close contact with the candidates or their staff members. Continue reading.

FDA vows to move ‘rapidly’ to authorize second coronavirus vaccine

Washington Post logo

Agency announcement follows Thursday’s positive review of Moderna’s shot by outside advisers

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday night that it will “rapidly work toward” emergency authorization of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, just hours after agency advisers endorsed the shot. The announcement appeared to pave the way for another weapon against a pandemic that has killed about 310,000 people in the United States.

The FDA statement came after the agency’s vaccine advisory panel voted almost unanimously — 20 in favor, with one abstention — that the benefits of the highly effective vaccine outweighed its risks for people 18 years of age and older. The FDA intends to authorize the vaccine Friday, according to knowledgeable individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the schedule.

“I just want to make the point of what a remarkable scientific achievement this is, and pay thanks to all the scientists, present and past, who contributed to this,” James E.K. Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College and a member of the advisory panel, said at the close of the committee meeting on Thursday. “To go from having a [genetic] sequence of a virus in January, to having two vaccines available in December, is a remarkable achievement.” Continue reading.

States report confusion as government reduces vaccine shipments, while Pfizer says it has ‘millions’ of unclaimed doses

Washington Post logo

Officials in multiple states said they were alerted late Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine had been drastically cut for next week, sparking widespread confusion and conflicting statements from Pfizer and federal officials about who was at fault.

The reduction prompted concern in health departments across the country about whether Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine accelerator program, could distribute doses quickly enough to meet the target of delivering first shots to 20 million people by year’s end.

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans, said the revised estimates were the result of states’ requesting an expedited timeline for locking in their allocations for the following week; notification of how many doses they could order each week was consequently advanced from Friday to Tuesday. Since Pfizer is producing doses daily, the official said, fewer doses were available Tuesday than will be available on Friday. Continue reading.

Where are the ‘continuity of government’ vaccine doses coming from? No one wants to say

DC Health says they aren’t in the District’s allotment, Warp Speed won’t explain

Where is the supply of COVID-19 vaccines coming from for senior officials across government? No one will say.

Days after the White House confirmed that senior officials would receive COVID-19 vaccines to help ensure continuity of government, it remains unclear from where those vaccine doses will originate.

The District of Columbia Department of Health insists the vaccine doses will not come from their allocation. The local government in Washington has been working with neighboring jurisdictions to make sure the residents of Maryland and Virginia who are frontline health care workers within D.C. are able to get vaccines. But that doesn’t appear to extend to federal officials. Continue reading.

FDA authorizes Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

Axios logo

The Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, one day after it was endorsed by a panel of independent experts.

Why it matters: The authorization of a second coronavirus vaccine, coming exactly one week after the FDA cleared Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for emergency use, increases vaccine access for millions of Americans and marks another milestone on the country’s path to curbing the pandemic.

Between the lines: Moderna’s vaccine, which the FDA confirmed is safe and has a 94.1% efficacy rate, does not need to be stored at ultracold temperatures and comes in smaller batches, making it easier to distribute to rural areas than Pfizer’s vaccine.

An FDA-approved home COVID-19 test is finally here. Here’s how it works

Yesterday the FDA approved the first over-the-counter at-home rapid COVID-19 test, which is expected to be on major drugstore shelves in January, the Washington Post reported. The test is being hailed as a total game changer, but there are still a few strategic sticking points. Here’s what you need to know about what this new at-home test means for us all.

The test is made by the Australian company Ellume, and it is the first test approved by the FDA that can be taken at home and does not require a doctor’s prescription. Here’s how it works: You use a nasal swab to collect a sample from the inside of your nose and then put the sample on a plastic cartridge that looks similar to a home pregnancy test. The device connects to an app on your smartphone, which then communicates with a lab for analysis, and you get your results in as little as 15 minutes.

The Ellume app also automatically sends your results to the cloud by zip code to help local health officials with tracking COVID-19 rates, but your personal data (allegedly) stays confidential. You will also be able to automatically share your results with healthcare providers if you choose to, according to the Post. This all bodes well for helping us know how many people are sick and where they are. Continue reading.