Tag: pandemic

Most States Are Unprepared To Distribute Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine

As the first coronavirus vaccine takes a major stride toward approval, state governments’ distribution plans show many are not ready to deliver the shots.

The challenge is especially steep in rural areas, many of which are contending with a surge of infections, meaning that access to the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines may be limited by geography.

Pfizer announced Monday that its vaccine demonstrated more than 90 percent effectiveness and no serious bad reactions in early trial results — an impressive outcome that will pave the way for the company to seek an emergency authorization once it collects more safety data for another week or two. But establishing that the vaccine is safe and effective is just the first step. Continue reading.

‘The time is now, Minnesota.’ Leaders plead with public to curb COVID.

This is it.

The moment experts feared and predicted. We avoided it for months, but it eventually came.

Minnesota is about to enter, as Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota put it a few days ago, “COVID hell.”

State and hospital officials say we’re as prepared as we have ever been — but that it very well might not be enough. Continue reading.

Moderna says coronavirus vaccine is 94.5 percent effective

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Moderna announced Monday morning that its coronavirus vaccine candidate was 94.5 percent effective in an interim analysis, a second promising data point in the push for a successful vaccine.

The announcement comes one week after Pfizer announced its vaccine was over 90 percent effective, meaning there are now two vaccines with very high levels of efficacy in interim analyses of clinical trial data.

Moderna based its data on a large clinical study involving 30,000 volunteers, half of whom received two doses of the vaccine over a 28-day period. There were 95 cases of coronavirus recorded among participants, with only 5 of them in the group receiving the vaccine. Continue reading.

Michigan, Washington order new restrictions as U.S. passes 11 million coronavirus cases

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Coronavirus cases reported in the United States passed 11 million on Sunday, as the nation shatters records for hospitalizations and daily new infections and as leaders turn to new, painful restrictions to stem the pandemic’s long-predicted surge.

The milestone came one week after the country hit 10 million cases, a testament to just how rapidly the virus is spreading — the first 1 million cases took more than three months. This new wave has increased covid-19 hospitalizations past the peaks seen in April and July, straining health-care systems and pushing some reluctant Republican governors to enact statewide mask mandates for the first time.

Other states are reenacting stay-at-home orders and store closures. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Sunday announced sweeping new limits on gatherings for three-weeks — including a ban on indoor dining at restaurants and bars, and a halt to in-person classes at high schools and colleges. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) also laid out a slew of new rules, which prohibit indoor social gatherings with people outside one’s household and indoor service at restaurants, bars and more. Continue reading.

Fears of double-dip recession rise alongside COVID-19 cases

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A sharp spike in COVID-19 cases across the U.S. is threatening the economic recovery and increasing the odds of a double-dip recession.

Daily coronavirus infections surpassed 100,000 for the first time earlier this month; since then, they have surged past the 150,000 mark. At the same time, congressional leaders appear increasingly unlikely to strike a deal on another COVID-19 relief package, even as another round of key unemployment benefits is set to expire in the coming weeks.

Economists across the political spectrum have consistently warned that sustained growth is dependent on getting the coronavirus under control, with many now viewing the rise in infections with heightened concern. Continue reading.

Trump tunes out pandemic surge as he focuses on denying election loss

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President Trump finally received some good news this past week: Amid spiking coronaviruscases nationwide — more than 100,000 new cases a day since Nov. 4, with deaths rising, too — pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that its experimental coronavirus vaccine was more than 90 percent effective.

But the president was furious.

The news came six days after Election Day — too late to help Trump in his contest against President-elect Joe Biden — and he said both Pfizer and his own Food and Drug Administration had withheld the announcement to prevent delivering him the sort of pre-election public-relations victory that could have helped him in the polls. Instead of touting the vaccine success as a crowning achievement of his administration, as advisers encouraged, Trump barely mentioned it except to gripe on Twitter that “the Democrats didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN, prior to the election.” Continue reading.

Missing From State Plans to Distribute the Coronavirus Vaccine: Money to Do It

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The government has sent billions to drug companies to develop a coronavirus shot but a tiny fraction of that to localities for training, record-keeping and other costs for vaccinating citizens.

With the prospect that a coronavirus vaccine will become available for emergency use as soon as next month, states and cities are warning that distributing the shots to an anxious public could be hindered by inadequate technology, severe funding shortfalls and a lack of trained personnel.

While the Trump administration has showered billions of dollars on the companies developing the vaccines, it has left the logistics of inoculating and tracking as many as 20 million people by year’s end — and many tens of millions more next year — largely to local governments without providing enough money, officials in several localities and public health experts involved in the preparations said in interviews.

Public health departments, already strained by a pandemic that has overrun hospitals and drained budgets, are racing to expand online systems to track and share information about who has been vaccinated; to recruit and train hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses and pharmacists to give people the shot and collect data about everyone who gets it; to find safe locations for mass vaccination events; and to convince the public of the importance of getting immunized. Continue reading.

Passengers on first cruise in Caribbean since March test positive for coronavirus

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The first cruise in the Caribbean since March has halted its journey after passengers tested for the coronavirus “returned assumptive positive results” on Wednesday, yachting company SeaDream said in a news release.

The cruising ship, the SeaDream I, returned to port in Barbados on Wednesday after administering rapid tests on all passengers as part of its routine testing protocol, which requires testing before and during the journey.

The reported outbreak is a major setback for the cruise industry, which has been touting testing as a path to the return to sea. Continue reading.

As virus cases surge, Republicans let Walz keep powers without a fight

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. (FOX 9) – As the coronavirus surges in Minnesota, Republican lawmakers let Gov. Tim Walz keep his emergency powers without a fight during Thursday’s unprecedented sixth special session of 2020.

More than 60 percent of senators decided to vote from home Thursday. Republican Sen. Dave Senjem told FOX 9 he tested positive over the weekend after developing a slight cough, and was isolating at home in Rochester but feeling better. 

Senjem said he attended Senate Republicans’ leadership election last Thursday before feeling symptoms. He said he likely got the virus before that, while campaigning in his district last week. Continue reading.

How Donald Trump set-up nursing home residents to die in the pandemic

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As the pandemic rages to new heights and we gear up for a new administration, there’s an important step President-Elect Joseph R. Biden could take right away to protect our most vulnerable population: He could restore the ability for nursing home residents to sue their facilities for poor health standards.

Though coronavirus cases for people living in long-term care facilities total just 8% of cases, that demographic accounts for 45% of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. through August, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The state-level data is even more grim. Nursing home deaths from COVID-19 in Minnesota and Rhode Island, for example, accounted for 81% of coronavirus deaths in those states as of early June, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation data. Long-term care facilities are a major driver of COVID-19 deaths in the country. Continue reading.