AP -
May 10, 2021
The European Union cemented its support for Pfizer-BioNTech and its novel COVID-19 vaccine technology Saturday by agreeing to a massive contract extension for a potential 1.8 billion doses through 2023. … The new contract, which has the unanimous backing of the 27 EU member nations, will entail not only the production of the vaccines but also making sure that all the essential components are sourced from the EU.
CBS News -
May 10, 2021
The castle said to have helped inspire Bram Stoker's "Dracula" will now offer COVID-19 vaccines. Bran Castle in Romania, often referred to as Dracula's Castle, will have free Pfizer vaccines for visitors every weekend in May, the BBC reports. … Medics can be seen sporting fang stickers, and signs featuring ferocious teeth replaced by needles have been spotted across the grounds.
AP -
May 10, 2021
Even as restrictions relax across much of the United States, colleges and universities have taken new steps to police campus life as the virus spreads through students who are among the last adults to get access to vaccines. Administrators say they’ve needed to act urgently to avoid risking an early end to the semester or sending infected students home and spreading COVID-19.
CNBC -
May 7, 2021
More than 70% of Americans aged 65 years and older are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data published Wednesday. The country has reported an average of 2.1 million vaccinations per day over the past week, down from a peak of 3.4 million in mid-April. Daily U.S. case counts continue to fall, with the seven-day average down 11% from a week ago.
CBS News -
May 7, 2021
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is 96% effective in teenagers 12- to 17-years-old, the drugmaker said Thursday. The company announced results of the Phase 2 trial in reporting first-quarter earnings. … Evidence that Moderna's vaccine is effective in teens comes as rival Pfizer is expected to receive federal authorization by early next week to use its COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents.
NPR -
May 7, 2021
A new study estimates that the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. is more than 900,000, a number 57% higher than official figures. Worldwide, the study's authors say, the COVID-19 death count is nearing 7 million, more than double the reported number of 3.24 million. The analysis comes from researchers at the UW’s IHME, who looked at excess mortality from March 2020 through May 3, 2021, compared it with what would be expected in a typical nonpandemic year, then adjusted those figures to account for a handful of other pandemic-related factors. The final count only estimates deaths "caused directly by the SARS-CoV-2 virus," …
STAT -
May 7, 2021
Two newly published studies find that health workers vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had lower rates of infection, especially symptomatic illness, than workers who hadn't been vaccinated. In one study, conducted in more than 6,700 health workers in Israel, only eight of the more than 5,500 fully vaccinated workers had symptomatic Covid infection, compared to 38 of the nearly 760 unvaccinated health workers who fell ill. … Another study, which looked at data from more than 5,200 workers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, found fewer infections — but more likely to be asymptomatic — among vaccinated workers than unvaccinated workers.
Yahoo! Finance -
May 7, 2021
The U.S. economy brought back far fewer jobs than estimated in April, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly increased. … Non-farm payrolls rose for a fourth straight month but at a sharply slower-than-expected clip, even as easing social distancing standards across the country helping support the recovery.
TIME -
May 7, 2021
In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Maryland-based biotech firm Novavax report that the company’s COVID-19 vaccine is 51% efficacious in protecting people from disease. The results come from a Phase 2 study of the two-dose vaccine, which uses a different technology than the three COVID-19 shots currently authorized by the FDA.
NPR -
May 7, 2021
For most people, COVID-19 vaccines promise a return to something akin to normal life. But for the hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. who have a transplanted organ, it's a different story. New research published this week in the medical journal JAMA suggests many transplant recipients may not get protection from vaccination, even after two doses.
BBC -
May 7, 2021
Germany has voiced opposition to a US-backed proposal to waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines, saying they were not hindering production of the jabs. Its government said "the protection of intellectual property is a source of innovation and must remain so". The European Union earlier said it was ready to talk about the proposal, and some states gave it their full backing.
AP -
May 6, 2021
The Biden administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy. United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the government’s position, amid WTO talks about a possible temporary waiver of its protections that would allow more manufacturers to produce the life-saving vaccines.
AP -
May 6, 2021
Teams of experts are projecting COVID-19′s toll on the U.S. will fall sharply by the end of July, according to research released by the government Wednesday. But they also warn that a “substantial increase” in hospitalizations and deaths is possible if unvaccinated people do not follow basic precautions such as wearing a mask and keeping their distance from others. … Even under scenarios involving disappointing vaccination rates, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are expected to drop dramatically by the end of July and continue to fall afterward.
Yahoo! Finance -
May 6, 2021
New weekly jobless claims set a new pandemic-era low last week, falling below 500,000 for the first time since March 2020, with initial filings trending decidedly lower in recent weeks amid the pick-up in economic activity.
TIME -
May 6, 2021
In a press release on May 5, Moderna reported the first results of any vaccine maker from studies on booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which some experts believe might be necessary in a year or so to keep COVID-19 under control. ... The company is testing three ways to add a third dose to its current two-dose regimen to potentially increase protection against new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Gallup -
May 6, 2021
With more than half of U.S. adults now at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, a record-high 76% are satisfied with the vaccine rollout in the U.S. Americans' satisfaction with the vaccination process is up from 68% in March and has more than doubled since the 34% recorded in late January. … Gallup's latest polling about the pandemic finds Americans are over three times more worried about people in their local area choosing not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 (55%) than about the availability of vaccines (15%).