Global COVID-19 vaccine makers have ramped up production rapidly and were optimistic on Tuesday that the US will have sufficient supplies to vaccinate any American who so wishes by the end of July.
Pharmaceutical company officials also said they are working on changes to the vaccines to target different strains if necessary.
John Young, chief business officer at Pfizer, said at a hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that his company will have delivered 120 million cans by the end of March and will have reached 300 million by the end of July. That’s enough for 150 million Americans, and Young said the company is working to keep children safe and effective.
“We are conducting studies in patients between the ages of 12 and 15 and hope to begin studies in children under the age of 11 soon,” said Young.
Dr. Stephen Hoge, President of Moderna, said his company also hopes to ship 300 million cans by the end of July. And Dr. Richard Nettles, vice president of medical affairs at Johnson & Johnson, said that if his company wins emergency food and drug administration approval, J&J hopes to deliver 100 million doses of its single-dose vaccine by the end of June.
Also in the news:
► Texas health officials were optimistic about this The vaccine distribution would get back on track At the end of the week. Last week’s electricity crisis resulted in shipping delays, canceled appointments and destroyed more than 900 doses of the vaccine across the country.
►NASCAR officials have banned legendary team owner Chip Ganassi from this weekend’s event at Homestead-Miami Speedway and fined him $ 30,000 Daytona 500 violation of COVID-19 event logs. Ganassi’s penalty was to bring a non-essential person into the restricted area of competition.
► Five vaccine manufacturers testify today before a house oversight committee investigating the shaky adoption of COVID-19 vaccines. Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax have representatives on the witness list.
►The house is focused on Bidens this week $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Democrats in Congress want the entire proposal to pass by mid-March. It currently includes a new round of checks for Americans, the renewal of the paycheck protection program, and an extension of a federal boost for unemployment benefits.
► California Governor Gavin Newsom plans to sign a state coronavirus relief package Tuesday, which includes one-time payments of $ 600 for 5.7 million low-middle-income people. The bill was approved by state legislators on Monday.
📈 Today’s numbers: The US has more than 28.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 500,200 deaths. according to the Johns Hopkins University. The global total: more than 111.7 million cases and 2.47 million deaths. In the United States, more than 75.2 million vaccine doses have been distributed and about 64.1 million administered. according to CDC.
📘 What we read: Why get a COVID-19 vaccination when you still have to wear a mask? It’s better to get sick, say health experts.
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Many would give up sex in order to travel
We knew Americans were dying to travel again – but we didn’t know how desperate they were until now: 38% of Americans surveyed by Trivago said they would give up sex for a year if they could travel again immediately. For the British, the number was even higher: 40%. Almost half of the Americans surveyed said they would also give up their jobs.
More than half of those surveyed said they had adopted a new hobby during the pandemic, and once it was all over, around two-thirds said they would likely choose a vacation related to that hobby.
The travel accommodation platform surveyed 2,000 British and Americans within a week in early January.
– Jayme Deerwester
Vaccine Envy: It’s Not Just Meghan McCain
Months after the vaccine was introduced, most Americans still don’t know the happy feeling of making an appointment for the first dose. Public health officials warned it would take time to vaccinate anyone who wished, but most people did not expect confusion and disagreement. You probably couldn’t prepare for the feeling of watching some people near normalization while they continued to wait. Meghan McCain, speaking on “The View,” directed her frustration to Dr. Anthony Fauci and took the heat off social media for it. But it doesn’t make a market for Vaccine envy, Experts say.
“Whenever you have a bit of hope and then it breaks, you either get depressed or angry or angry,” said therapist Steven Stosny. “And sometimes you will blame another person for it, even though it’s the system that is really causing the stress.” Read more here.
‘Saturday Night Live’ lights fire over joke about Israel’s vaccination program
Saturday Night Live makes a joke about Israel’s virus vaccination program.
Israel allows access to shots to anyone over the age of 16 and has vaccinated nearly half of its population. Michael Che, SNL’s Weekend Update anchor, joked, “I think it’s the Jewish half.”
Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and are controlled by Israel are not included in the statistics and have little access to vaccines. Israel claims the areas are responsible for providing health care to their people.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, was one of those who looked into Che’s humor. Greenblatt cited “factual inaccuracies” and accused Che of “playing in an anti-Semitic group”.
Fauci: Politics contributed to the death toll
Political divisions in America are partly responsible for the nation’s COVID-19 death toll rising to over 500,000, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday. Speaking on CNN, Fauci declined to call ex-President Donald Trump specifically, but said months of downplaying the severity of the pandemic by political leaders had eroded mitigation efforts sponsored by public health experts like wearing masks and social distancing discouraged.
“They are trying to signal the country that it is really contracting and addressing the mitigation strategies we put forward,” said Fauci, a senior health adviser to President Joe Biden. “And there are signals that say: ‘This is not that bad, we are in pretty good shape …’ That was not helpful.”
Fauci said it was painful to hear people calling the pandemic “false news” while hospitals were overflowing with virus patients
“I mean, how could you say that when people are dying in your own state, your own city, your own county?” Said Fauci.
Meghan McCain rejects a backlash after calling for Fauci to be fired
Meghan McCain is confirmed despite social media backlash suggests Dr. Dismiss Anthony Fauci.
During Monday’s episode of “The View”, McCain shared how “frustrated” she was with Fauci after his appearance on CNN. McCain played a short segment in which Fauci refused to recommend whether vaccinated grandparents are safe to see their unvaccinated grandchildren.
On Monday, McCain, 36, said she didn’t know when or how to get a vaccine because the “rollout is so nebulous for my age group and my health.”
“I’ve been honest about my frustration … I represent the sentiments of a lot of Americans,” she tweeted on Tuesday. “I also believe that it is dangerous and irrational to condemn our public figures to infallibility.”
– Cydney Henderson
Community health centers expected to vaccinate low-income patients
The Biden administration targets community health centers that care for approximately 30 million patients nationwide. as vaccine distribution centers. Two-thirds of these patients live in or under poverty, half are racially or ethnic minorities, and most are uninsured or on Medicaid.
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Chair of the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, announced earlier this month that the administration will begin shipping cans to 250 centers, at least one in each state or territory.
At the Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, Janice Robinson, chief operating officer, said more than 3,000 patients are on waiting lists for a shot at the network’s 17 community health centers.
“We don’t have enough,” said Robinson. “This will definitely make a change.”
– Nada Hassanein
Woman dies after contracting a virus from a lung donor
A woman who died after a double lung transplant The Medical School at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is the first known person to develop COVID-19 from donor lungs, according to a new case report published in the American Journal of Transplantation.
The case is rare and represents “the worst scenario” that could arise in a pandemic that kills half a million Americans, said Bruce Nicely, clinical director of Gift of Life Michigan, the state-sponsored organ and tissue recovery program of the state. Nice to note that Gift of Life Michigan was not involved in this donation. The transplant took place at the end of October.
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first and actually only documented transmission of COVID-19 to a recipient” from donated organs, Nicely said.
– Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press
Biden expresses social distancing, wearing mask in the White House ceremony
Biden urged Americans to wear masks at the somber ceremony at the White House in honor of the United States and take other measures to prevent the virus from spreading 500,000 Americans live lost to COVID-19. Biden pointed out that the death toll from the pandemic is higher than the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined.
“The people we lost were extraordinary. They spanned generations,” Biden said of the virus victims. “Born in America, emigrated to America. So many of them just took their last breath in America alone.”
The US, with around 4% of the world’s population, has recorded 25% of COVID-19 cases and 20% of deaths. Experts warn that an additional 90,000 deaths are expected in the next few months, despite the country’s massive vaccination campaign. The White House pandemic team said this weekend that despite the steep decline in cases this month, infection rates remain above the height of last summer and life will not return to normal for some time.
Contributor: The Associated Press
