TIME -
October 26, 2020
She is among parents in several school districts around the country who are demanding a return to in-person, the latest escalation in the polarizing debate over how to educate children as it becomes clear that the pandemic is not subsiding. … A recent analysis of 106 school district plans by the Center on Reinventing Public Education found that just 10% were in-person at the beginning of September, but 55% of those districts are planning to be in-person by November. A recent WaPo survey of the country’s 50 largest school districts found that 24 have resumed in-person learning for large groups of students, and 11 others plan to in the coming weeks.
STAT -
October 26, 2020
Two major studies of vaccines against Covid-19, both paused because of potential safety concerns, are set to restart, the companies running them said Friday. … In both cases, new documents describing potential risks for both researchers and volunteers have been prepared, and must be approved by a centralized institutional review board, one of several groups charged with protecting patients in the trial.
STAT -
October 26, 2020
There are serious signs the FDA is getting cold feet over the notion of issuing emergency use authorizations to allow for the widespread early deployment of Covid-19 vaccines. Instead, it appears the agency may be exploring the idea of using expanded access — a more limited program that is typically used for investigational drugs — in the early days of Covid vaccine rollouts. Whereas a few weeks ago the agency’s concern was to protect against the possibility that unproven vaccines would be pushed out prematurely due to pressure from President Trump, now the fear is that early authorization of vaccines could squander a one-time chance to determine how well the various vaccines work and which work best in whom.
AP -
October 23, 2020
U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the first drug to treat COVID-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given to hospitalized patients through an IV. The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. is calling Veklury, cut the time to recovery by five days — from 15 days to 10 on average — in a large study led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It had been authorized for use on an emergency basis since spring, and now becomes the first drug to win full FDA approval for treating COVID-19. President Donald Trump received it when he was sickened earlier this month.
NBC News -
October 23, 2020
The U.S. set a record Thursday as the number of new coronavirus cases rose to over 77,000, topping the previous record in July. Nationwide, 77,640 new cases were reported for the day, up from the previous record of 75,723 on July 29, according to the latest tally compiled by NBC News. The record-breaking daily tally comes as the total number of coronavirus cases in the country has reached nearly 8.5 million, with 224,280 deaths. There were 921 coronavirus-related deaths reported on Thursday.
STAT -
October 23, 2020
President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden presented starkly different visions for the country’s recovery from Covid-19 at the final presidential debate Thursday, with Biden warning of a “dark winter” and Trump downplaying the threat of the virus and urging Americans to return to work and to school. In the first segment of the debate, Trump doubled down on his misleading assessment that the U.S. is “rounding the turn” on Covid-19, insisting “it will go away.” … Biden, meanwhile, attacked Trump’s “ineptitude,” urging increased use of masks and adherence to social distancing guidelines.
Reuters -
October 23, 2020
Several U.S. states, many of them in the Midwest, reported record single-day increases in COVID-19 infections on Thursday, further evidence that the pandemic is accelerating anew as cooler weather takes hold in many parts of the country. Indiana, North Dakota, Illinois, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah and Ohio posted daily records on Thursday, according to a Reuters analysis, while Florida reported more than 5,500 new cases, its highest single-day increase since Aug. 15. Twenty-eight states have reported their daily record high of COVID-19 cases in the month of October alone.
Reuters -
October 23, 2020
Europe’s reported coronavirus cases more than doubled in 10 days, crossing 200,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, with many Southern European countries reporting their highest single-day cases this week. Europe reported 100,000 daily cases for the first time on Oct. 12. … European countries like Italy, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia reported their highest single-day coronavirus cases on Thursday.
HealthDay -
October 23, 2020
More than half of all Americans have been personally affected by COVID-19 at this point in the pandemic, according to a new HealthDay-Harris Poll survey. The national survey was conducted by The Harris Poll between Oct. 8 and 12. It found that 55% of U.S. adults now say they know someone in their immediate or extended network of family and acquaintances who's been infected, hospitalized or passed away from COVID-19. About two in every five people said they'd had even more direct experience with COVID-19, with either themselves or someone very close to them falling ill, being hospitalized or dying.
TIME -
October 23, 2020
As part of its routine review process, the U.S. FDA, the agency responsible for evaluating and deciding if the handful of COVID-19 vaccines currently being studied are safe and effective enough to use by people around the world, convened a committee on Oct. 22 to allow experts and the public to learn about and comment on the review process. … Over a period of four and a half hours, the committee, which met virtually, heard from invited speakers from the government agencies responsible for developing testing and distributing COVID-19 vaccines about the latest plans for evaluating how safe and effective the vaccines are.
CNN -
October 23, 2020
The Trump Administration's faltering response to the coronavirus pandemic has led to anywhere between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths that could have been prevented, according to a report released Thursday by a team of disaster preparedness experts. Insufficient testing, a lack of national mask mandates or guidance, a delayed overall response and outright mocking of basic public health practices by the administration has put the US at the top of the global coronavirus death toll, the report from Columbia University Earth Institute's National Center for Disaster Preparedness finds.
HealthDay -
October 23, 2020
A new HealthDay/Harris Poll shows that more Americans than ever are donning face masks to protect against COVID-19 infection. More than 9 in 10 U.S. adults (93%) said they sometimes, often or always wear a mask or face covering when they leave their home and are unable to socially distance, including more than seven in 10 (72%) who said they always do so, the poll revealed. … Back in August, just 61% of U.S. adults said they always wear a mask, while 90% said they sometimes, often or always wear one.
NPR -
October 23, 2020
The FDA is preparing for the eventual rollout of one or more COVID-19 vaccines — by identifying the concerns that some people have about taking such a vaccine. At a meeting Thursday of experts advising the FDA on COVID-19 vaccines, the concerns of front-line workers and people of color were read aloud verbatim, highlighting the crucial project of communicating the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine in an environment of deep political distrust.
USA Today -
October 23, 2020
Blood centers are still reporting significant declines in blood collections, leaving the blood supply in the US at critically low levels, according to a joint statement issued late last week by the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks), the American Red Cross and America’s Blood Centers. COVID-19, coupled with wildfires in the Western states, recent hurricanes and other storms, have led to “unprecedented fluctuations” in both the supply and demand for blood. More than 80% of the blood collected by the American Red Cross comes from blood drives, which haven't returned to pre-pandemic levels, as schools opt for virtual learning and people continue to work from home.
Reuters -
October 23, 2020
The US, state governments and some foreign countries should replace quarantines and travel bans on airline passengers with COVID-19 testing of travelers before departure and upon arrival, airline and business groups said on Thursday. They said the move would boost U.S. international air travel, which is down 78% year-over-year for the most recent seven-day period, according to airline industry data.
NPR -
October 23, 2020
The pandemic is driving a major boom in the housing market that's breaking all kinds of records and exposing a very uneven economic recovery between the haves and the have-nots. The most dramatic increases are happening at the top end of the market — sales of homes costing $1 million and up have more than doubled since last year.