NBC News -
July 20, 2021
The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday recommended that all children over the age of 2 wear masks when returning to school this year, regardless of vaccination status. The AAP, which said its important for children to return to in-person learning this year, recommends that school staff also wear masks. … The AAP said universal masking is necessary because much of the student population is not vaccinated, and it's hard for schools to determine who is as new variants emerge that might spread more easily among children.
STAT -
July 20, 2021
Millions of unused Covid-19 vaccines are set to go to waste as demand dwindles across the United States and doses likely expire this summer, according to public health officials. Several state health departments told STAT they have repeatedly asked the federal government to redistribute their supply to other countries, many of which are facing a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials in Washington have rejected those requests, citing legal and logistical challenges.
Fox News -
July 20, 2021
Coronavirus patients taking statins prior to hospitalization substantially reduced their odds of in-hospital death and severe COVID-19, researchers found, confirming earlier findings. … Medications for cholesterol and high blood pressure help stabilize underlying diseases, and likely boost patients' odds of recovering from COVID-19 disease, study authors said.
The New York Times -
July 20, 2021
Among the 25 counties with the sharpest increases in cases, all but one had vaccinated under 40 percent of residents, and 16 had vaccinated under 30 percent … “Boy, we’ve tried just about everything we can think of,” a retired National Guard colonel, Robert Ator, who runs the state’s vaccination effort, said in an interview. For about one in three residents, he said, “I don’t think there’s a thing in the world we could do to get them to get vaccinated.”
CNN -
July 20, 2021
The average number of new Covid-19 cases each day the past week was 32,278. That's a 66% jump from the average daily rate the previous week, and 145% higher than the rate from two weeks ago. An average of 258 Americans died from Covid-19 each day this past week -- up 13% from the rate of daily deaths the previous week. And 24,923 people are hospitalized with Covid-19, according to data from HHS … That's a 26% increase from last week and a 50% increase from two weeks ago.
CNBC -
July 20, 2021
The Covid-19 recession ended in April 2020, the National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday. That makes the two-month downturn the shortest in U.S. history. The NBER is recognized as the official arbiter of when recessions end and begin.
NPR -
July 19, 2021
The death rate from COVID-19 in the U.S. is rising steadily for the first time in months as the nation grapples with a renewed burst of cases in what's become "a pandemic of the unvaccinated," the head of the CDC said Friday. The seven-day average of new cases has increased by nearly 70% to almost 30,000 per day; hospitalizations are up 36%. And deaths from the virus have risen steadily in recent days, reversing a months-long downward trend that began in mid-January.
HealthDay -
July 19, 2021
Pfizer Inc. announced on Friday that the FDA has granted priority review to its COVID-19 vaccine, positioning the vaccine for full approval by January. … A full approval for the Pfizer vaccine could help boost U.S. vaccination efforts. Some people who have been reluctant to get a shot have said they are unwilling to get an experimental medication, and an approval could also make it easier for employers, school districts and others to mandate vaccination, Bloomberg News reported.
AP -
July 19, 2021
No one disputes that the world is unfair. But no one expected a vaccine gap between the global rich and poor that was this bad, this far into the pandemic. Inequity is everywhere: Inoculations go begging in the U.S. while Haiti, a short plane ride away, received its first delivery July 15 after months of promises — 500,000 doses for a population over 11 million.
CNBC -
July 19, 2021
Facebook on Saturday refuted remarks made by President Joe Biden that social media platforms are “killing people” by allowing Covid vaccine misinformation to proliferate on their services. Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, pointed to data suggesting that vaccine hesitancy among U.S. users has declined by 50%.
AP -
July 19, 2021
An alternate on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team has tested positive for COVID-19 in a training camp in Japan, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said Monday. The USOPC did not say if Olympic champion Simone Biles or any of the other favorites to win the team gold were isolated because of contact tracing. The positive test was the latest in growing line of daily reports of athletes and others testing positive at the pandemic-delayed Olympics. The unnamed gymnast was the first American.
AP -
July 19, 2021
The U.S. surgeon general said Sunday that he’s concerned about what lies ahead with cases of COVID-19 increasing in every state, millions still unvaccinated and a highly contagious virus variant spreading rapidly. Noting that nearly all coronavirus deaths now are among the tens of millions of people who haven’t received shots, despite widespread vaccine availability, Dr. Vivek Murthy painted an unsettling picture of what the future could hold.
AP -
July 19, 2021
Pandemic restrictions on Florida-based cruise ships will remain in place after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a previous ruling that sided with a Florida lawsuit challenging the regulations.
NBC News -
July 16, 2021
Emergency authorization for Covid-19 vaccines in children under 12 could come in early to midwinter, an FDA official said Thursday, a move that could bring relief to many parents who have been unable to vaccinate their children. The agency hopes to then move quickly to full approval of the vaccine for this age group.
Fox News -
July 16, 2021
A panel of independent experts advising the CDC plans to consider additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine in a small fraction of the population with weakened immune systems. [ACIP] plans to convene on July 22 to discuss "clinical considerations for additional doses in immunocompromised individuals," according to a draft agenda posted ahead of the meeting.
AP -
July 16, 2021
A top official at the European Medicines Agency said a decision on whether to recommend that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine be authorized for children is expected late next week. If approved, it would be the first such license for the shot’s use in children globally. … EU drug regulator’s head of vaccines strategy, said its expert committee was currently evaluating Moderna’s application to extend the use of its coronavirus vaccine for children 12 to 17 years old.