AP -
April 26, 2021
With a green light from federal health officials, many states resumed use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine on Saturday. … Among the other states ordering or recommending a resumption, along with IN, were AZ, CO, CT, LA, ME, MA, MI, MS, NV, TN, TX, and VA. Those moves came swiftly after U.S. health officials said Friday evening that they were lifting an 11-day pause on vaccinations using the J&J vaccine. During the pause, scientific advisers decided the vaccine’s benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clot.
PEOPLE -
April 26, 2021
The CDC is recommending those who are pregnant get the COVID-19 vaccine. On Friday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky spoke during a White House COVID-19 briefing and cited a recent study that suggests there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine causes any form of concern for pregnant individuals or their babies. The study, which was published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, reported data from over 35,000 individuals who were either pregnant or soon to become pregnant.
AP -
April 26, 2021
With life-saving oxygen in short supply, family members in India are left on their own to ferry coronavirus patients from hospital to hospital in search of treatment as the country is engulfed in a devastating new surge of infections. Too often their efforts end in mourning. … For the fourth straight day, India on Sunday set a global daily record of new coronavirus infections, spurred by an insidious new variant that emerged here. The surge has undermined the government’s premature claims of victory over the pandemic.
Business Insider -
April 26, 2021
About 5 million Americans have so far missed their appointment to receive the second COVID-19 vaccine. Many Americans are reportedly choosing to miss their second dose for a variety of reasons, including a fear of potential side effects. Others had their second appointments canceled because vaccination sites ran out of doses. … The New York Times reports that nearly 8% of the people who've so far received their first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines have missed their follow-up appointments to receive the second dose.
Kaiser Health News -
April 26, 2021
As states expand covid-19 vaccine eligibility to allow shots for 16- and 17-year-olds, teens in rural America may have trouble getting them. Of the three vaccines authorized in the U.S., currently only one can go to that age group: the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. That vaccine comes in 1,170-dose packages at minimum and expires after five days in a fridge, meaning too many doses on too tight a deadline for many rural communities to manage.
CBS News -
April 26, 2021
The territory is leading the nation in vaccination rates and could be the first in the United States to achieve herd immunity. The journey to reach herd immunity on the Navajo Nation hasn't always been a smooth one. The largest Native American reservation had one of the country's highest per capita COVID-19 death rates last year. More than 1,200 of its people died of coronavirus complications.
AP -
April 23, 2021
COVID-19 hospitalizations among older Americans have plunged more than 70% since the start of the year, and deaths among them appear to have tumbled as well, dramatic evidence the vaccination campaign is working. … senior citizens have accounted for about 8 out of 10 deaths from the virus since it hit the U.S. … COVID-19 deaths among people of all ages in the U.S. have plummeted to about 700 per day on average, compared with a peak of over 3,400 in mid-January.
STAT Newsletter -
April 23, 2021
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is set to meet again today to recommend whether vaccinations with Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 shot could resume in the U.S. The CDC and FDA urged a pause on the use of J&J's vaccine on April 13, after identifying serious but rare instances of blood clots in six women who received the shot.
AP -
April 23, 2021
Louisiana has stopped asking the federal government for its full allotment of COVID-19 vaccine. About three-quarters of Kansas counties have turned down new shipments of the vaccine at least once over the past month. And in Mississippi, officials asked the federal government to ship vials in smaller packages so they don’t go to waste. As the supply of coronavirus vaccine doses in the U.S. outpaces demand, some places around the country are finding there’s such little interest in the shots, they need to turn down shipments.
CNBC -
April 23, 2021
Some people have reported being diagnosed with Covid-19 after receiving their first shot of the vaccine and before receiving their second shot. People who get infected with the virus between Covid vaccine shots can get their second dose after they’ve recovered from the illness and are no longer considered contagious, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.
STAT -
April 23, 2021
After hovering at stubbornly high levels or increasing over the past two months, average daily cases in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Illinois, and other states in the Midwest and Northeast have started to fall, providing a breath of relief that the communities are past their most recent peaks. Crucially, new infections in Michigan — which experienced the worst of the spring spikes, with some of its highest Covid-19 levels of the entire pandemic occurring in recent weeks — have started declining, with hospitalizations also starting to tick down.
HealthDay -
April 23, 2021
As reported April 22 in the journal Nature, the new study tracked outcomes for over 73,000 non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients and almost 5 million without the illness. ... The bottom line, said the researchers, is that in the six months after onset of their illness, COVID-19 survivors had a 59% increased risk for death compared to people who hadn't had the illness, and a 20% higher odds of needing to go back for some form of outpatient care.
CNN -
April 22, 2021
President Joe Biden on Wednesday touted the anticipated milestone of the U.S. administering 200 million coronavirus vaccine shots since he took office and urged businesses to give their employees paid time off to get vaccinated. As a part of that call for time off … Biden announced a new tax credit to fully offset the cost for small businesses and nonprofits providing paid leave for employees to get vaccinated.
AP -
April 22, 2021
The preliminary results are based on reports from over 35,000 U.S. women who received either the Moderna or Pfizer shots while pregnant. Their rates of miscarriage, premature births and other complications were comparable to those observed in published reports on pregnant women before the pandemic. … None of the women involved received Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine, which became available after the study…
CNBC -
April 22, 2021
The chief medical officer of BioNTech told CNBC that people will likely need a third shot of its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine as immunity against the virus wanes. Dr. Ozlem Tureci, co-founder and CMO of BioNTech, which developed a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, said she also expects people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus annually, like for the seasonal flu.
CNN -
April 22, 2021
The FDA said Wednesday that new production of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine remains paused at the Emergent BioSolutions facility where millions of potential doses were contaminated, and the agency and the company are working through a list of potential quality issues. … newly released document details issues that could affect quality during manufacturing -- including incomplete investigations into cross-contamination, written procedures that weren't followed, poorly maintained facilities and a lack of employee training.