AP -
December 1, 2020
Moderna Inc. said Monday it was asking U.S. and European regulators to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results confirm the shots offer strong protection — intensifying the race to begin limited vaccinations as the coronavirus rampage worsens. Multiple vaccine candidates must succeed for the world to stamp out the pandemic, which has been on the upswing in the U.S. and Europe.
NPR -
December 1, 2020
So many health care workers are expressing concerns and anxiety about getting COVID-19 vaccines that the CDC says addressing hesitancy in this group is a top priority. A CDC survey, shared at a public meeting of its vaccine advisory committee on Nov. 23, found that 63% of health care workers polled in recent months said they would get a COVID-19 vaccine.
NPR -
November 30, 2020
The number of hospitalizations from the coronavirus set yet another record on Saturday, as cases continue to surge and public health officials warn of a worsening outlook with the holiday season just weeks away. More than 91,500 people were hospitalized with the virus on Saturday, with 18,000 in intensive care units. … Over 6,000 patients were on ventilators. … "We may see a surge upon a surge," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told ABC's This Week on Sunday. "We don't want to frighten people, but that's just the reality. We said that these things would happen as we got into the cold weather and as we began traveling, and they've happened."
STAT -
November 30, 2020
Moderna said Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine continued to deliver strong efficacy results, showing 94% efficacy in the main analysis of its key study. The company said it would immediately seek regulatory clearances in the U.S. and Europe. The milestone suggests that there could be two vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus before the end of 2020. Pfizer and BioNTech released positive results for a similar vaccine on Nov. 18, and requested an emergency use authorization, or EUA, from the FDA two days later.
NPR -
November 30, 2020
Hospitals are worried that staffing levels won't be able to keep up with demand, as doctors, nurses and specialists such as respiratory therapists become exhausted or, worse, become infected or sick themselves. The typical workaround for staffing shortages — hiring clinicians from out of town — isn't the solution anymore, even though it helped ease the strain early in the pandemic, when the first surge of cases was concentrated in a handful of "hot spot" cities like New York, Detroit, Seattle and New Orleans.
NPR -
November 30, 2020
The "safer at home" order — which takes effect Monday and runs through Dec. 20 — prohibits all public and private gatherings with individuals outside of a person's household, with exceptions for faith-based services and protests because they are "constitutionally protected rights." Residents are advised to stay home "as much as possible" but to wear a mask if they do go out.
AP -
November 30, 2020
New York City will reopen its school system to in-person learning, and increase the number of days a week many children attend class, even as the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday. The announcement marks a major policy reversal for the nation’s largest school system, less than two weeks after de Blasio announced that schools were shutting down because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in the city. Some elementary schools and pre-kindergarten programs will resume classes Dec. 7, a week from Monday, the mayor said.
AP -
November 30, 2020
Faulting inaction in Washington, governors and state lawmakers are racing to get pandemic relief to small-business owners, the unemployed, renters and others whose livelihoods have been upended by the widening coronavirus outbreak. In some cases, elected officials are spending the last of a federal relief package passed in the spring as an end-of-year deadline approaches and the fall COVID-19 surge threatens their economies anew.
NBC News -
November 30, 2020
Between February and June, an estimated 14.6 million people lost their employee-sponsored health insurance. Elements of Obamacare helped shore up those losses.
TODAY -
November 30, 2020
A Singaporean woman, who was infected with the novel coronavirus in March when she was pregnant, has given birth to a baby with antibodies against the virus, offering a new clue as to whether the infection can be transferred from mother to child. The baby was born this month without COVID-19 but with the virus antibodies, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the mother.
Reuters -
November 30, 2020
COVID-19 infections have fallen by 30% during England’s month-long national lockdown and the virus is now in retreat, a large-scale study of more than 100,000 volunteers showed on Monday. England began its second national lockdown on Nov. 5 to curb rapidly rising infections and protect its health system. The country is due to return to a regional approach to restrictions from Dec. 2.
AP -
November 24, 2020
State and local officials nationwide are imposing new coronavirus restrictions and pleading with the public in an increasingly desperate attempt to stop the explosive spread of the disease as many Americans resist calls to limit gatherings and travel heading into the holidays. … Shortages of staff, rather than beds, are the biggest single problem in many hospitals, the health officials said. “Just because you can take a cot and put it in a room doesn’t mean you have the appropriate nursing staff to care for a patient,” said Dr. Anthony Hericks, director of critical care with Avera Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Reuters -
November 24, 2020
After pounding big U.S. cities in the spring, COVID-19 now has engulfed rural and small-town America, seeming to seep into the country’s every nook and cranny. According to Reuters’ interviews with more than a dozen medical care providers and public health officials in the nation’s heartland, many hospitals are severely lacking in beds, equipment and - most critically - clinical staff, including specialists and nurses.
Politico -
November 24, 2020
The CDC is advising overwhelmed local health officials to triage their coronavirus contact tracing efforts, writing that the latest infection surge is making it difficult to reach every close contact of Covid-positive patients in time to help contain the disease’s spread. “As the burden of COVID-19 worsens in an area, and the capacity to investigate new cases in a timely manner becomes more difficult or is not feasible, health departments should prioritize which cases to investigate and which contacts to trace,” reads new guidance from the CDC.
Reuters -
November 24, 2020
The White House plans to hold indoor holiday receptions in the coming weeks despite ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks and the advice of public health professionals urging Americans to sacrifice their normal holiday gatherings to curb the spread of the virus. … While the White House has said President Donald Trump and his wife Melania will remain in Washington this week, skipping their annual Thanksgiving at Trump’s private club in Florida, the first lady plans to hold a holiday reception a few days later on Nov. 30, according to an invitation obtained by ABC News.
NPR -
November 24, 2020
The Strategic National Stockpile, which the U.S. has traditionally depended on for emergencies, still lacks critical supplies, nine months into one of the worst public health care crises this country has ever seen, an NPR investigation has learned. A combination of long-standing budget shortfalls, lack of domestic manufacturing, snags in the global supply chain, and overwhelming demand has meant that the stockpile is short of the gloves, masks, and other supplies needed to weather this winter's surge in COVID-19 cases.