Tag: pandemic

Vaccines offer hope for end to pandemic, but brutal months lie ahead

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Coronavirus vaccines are poised to be approved and distributed in the coming weeks in the United States, but that promising news comes amid record levels of infections and hospitalizations, with experts warning that the most brutal period of the pandemic lies ahead.

This is a split-screen moment: Progress on vaccines means people can now plausibly talk about what they will do when the pandemic is over. But with new infections topping 212,000 Thursday — another daily record, topping one set Wednesday — it won’t be over in a snap. This remains a dismal slog.

“The vaccine has not come in time to do much about the winter wave,” said Christopher Murray, director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “Vaccination is coming too late even if we do a really great job of scale-up. It’s coming too late to do much by March 1, or really by April 1.” Only at that point, he added, will the widespread distribution of vaccines begin to crush the virus. Continue reading.

US Covid-19 hospitalizations set another daunting record at 100,667

Thursday marked yet another bleak day of the pandemic, with the United States reporting a record high of 100,667 Covid-19 hospitalizations, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

So far, each day this week has brought a new record. More than 2,800 Covid-19 deaths were reported Wednesday in the United States — the most the country has ever reported in a single day. 

As of Thursday evening, Johns Hopkins University has reported 203,304 new cases and 2,702 reported deaths for the day. This is the second highest daily report of new cases since the pandemic began. Continue reading.

Biden asked Fauci to serve as chief medical adviser

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President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday asked Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, to serve as his chief medical adviser. 

Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that he asked Fauci to serve in the position in addition to staying on in his longtime role as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

“I asked him to stay on the exact same role he’s had for the past several presidents, and I asked him to be a chief medical adviser for me as well, and be part of the COVID team,” Biden told the network in his first joint interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since the election.  Continue reading.

Virus surge pushing ambulance transfers ‘through the roof’ in Minnesota

State data show that ambulances during the week before Thanksgiving handled 780 calls — the highest since the start of the pandemic. 

Paramedics thought the pandemic would mean emergency crews racing to help patients in respiratory distress.

EMS traffic was slow in the spring. But in the fall, the second COVID surge boosted emergency runs and has now pumped up trips between hospitals to create space for those critically ill with COVID-19.

“You would sit around for a long time without calls coming in, because everyone was staying in — everyone was kind of scared of doing stuff,” paramedic Devin Orchard said Wednesday after bringing a patient to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. Continue reading.

Trump: Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus

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President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, 76, has tested positive for COVID-19, Trump tweeted on Sunday. 

Why it matters: Giuliani has been traveling the country, and meeting with lawmakers, as part of Trump’s legal team to push an unfounded claim that the 2020 election was rigged against the president and that state results should be overturned. He often has not worn a mask at these events.

McConnell, Schumer spar as pressure grows for coronavirus deal

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) sparred over coronavirus relief on Thursday as pressure grows for leadership to cut a deal.  

McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, said he believed a deal on coronavirus relief was “within reach,” but didn’t embrace a bipartisan proposal gaining steam within his own caucus.  

McConnell argued Congress should pass a coronavirus relief bill that covers areas on which both sides agree, including more small business aid through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and extending soon-to-expire programs created through the March CARES Act.  Continue reading.

Pompeo invites hundreds to indoor holiday parties after subordinates are warned against hosting ‘non-mission critical events’

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Following a sharp spike in coronavirus cases across the country, State Department leadership sent out a notice to employees one week ago recommending that “any non-mission critical events” be changed to “virtual events as opposed to in-person gatherings.”

That same week, U.S. event planners were told that the guidance did not apply to the upcoming functions they were working on: large indoor holiday parties hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife, Susan, on the eighth floor of the State Department involving hundreds of guests, food and drinks.

Pompeo’s lineup of parties in the next three weeks comes as the Trump administration’s own health experts are imploring Americans to limit travel and avoid large gatherings amid a pandemic that has killed more than 270,000 Americans and infected nearly 14 million across the United States. Continue reading.

CDC says coronavirus quarantines can be shortened from 14 days

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday said its recommended quarantine time after someone is exposed to the coronavirus can be shortened to seven days with a negative test result, and 10 days without a test, if they do not have symptoms.

CDC officials said that people ideally would still quarantine for the full 14 days, but that in an effort to boost compliance with quarantining and after “extensive modelling,” they determined there was a low risk of people continuing to spread the virus in the final days of a quarantine.

“Reducing the length of quarantine may make it easier for people to take this critical public health step,” said Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager. Continue reading.

States With Lax Restrictions Are Spreading Virus Beyond Their Borders

For months after Washington state imposed one of the earliest and strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in March, Jim Gilliard didn’t stray far from his modular home near Waitts Lake, 45 miles north of Spokane.

The retiree was at high risk from the coronavirus, both because of his age, 70, and his medical condition. Several years ago, he had a defibrillator implanted. So he mainly ventured out during the pandemic to shop for food.

There wasn’t much else to do anyway. Gatherings in his county were limited to no more than 10 people, there was a mask mandate, movie theaters were closed, and many nightclubs and concert venues were shuttered because of a state ban on all live entertainment, indoors and out. Continue reading.

Rep. Howard Statement on COVID-19 Vaccine Prioritization

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, following remarks from Republican legislative leaders on allowing the Minnesota Legislature to be given priority consideration for a COVID-19 vaccine, State Representative Michael Howard (DFL – Richfield) released the following statement:

“To the Republican leaders suggesting that legislators should have priority over other Minnesotans to receive life-saving vaccinations, I ask a simple question – have you no sense of decency? This brazen and selfish request is especially galling coming from legislators that have consistently minimized the seriousness of COVID-19, exacerbating a dangerous and highly contagious disease.  

“Instead of cutting in line, we need to work together to prioritize our health care workers who have risked their lives for months fighting on the front lines, the elderly, those with chronic health conditions, our teachers and child care workers who are working around the clock to care for kids, and the food and service workers who are keeping our communities fed through this crisis. To do otherwise would not only be an egregious lapse in integrity, but a flagrant violation of the public’s trust.”