The Atlantic -
April 22, 2021
Vaccination is already changing the landscape of COVID-19 risk by age. In the U.S., hospital admissions have fallen dramatically for adults over 70 who were prioritized for vaccines, but they have remained steady—or have even risen slightly—in younger groups that became eligible more recently. This trend is likely to continue as vaccines reach younger and younger adults.
CNN -
April 21, 2021
Experts say there are several reasons for the rise in these numbers, including dangerous coronavirus variants -- such as the more contagious B.1.1.7 strain that has helped fuel another surge in Michigan. Pandemic fatigue and more Americans moving around have also likely contributed to the rise.
AP -
April 21, 2021
The U.S. is set to meet President Joe Biden’s latest vaccine goal of administering 200 million coronavirus shots in his first 100 days in office, as the White House steps up its efforts to inoculate the rest of the public. … With roughly 28 million vaccine doses being delivered each week, demand has eclipsed supply as the constraining factor to vaccinations in much of the country. While surveys have shown that vaccine hesitancy has declined since the rollout of the shots, administration officials believe they have to make getting vaccinated easier and more appealing.
AP -
April 21, 2021
The European Union’s drug regulatory agency said Tuesday that it found a “possible link” between Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine and extremely rare blood clots and recommended a warning be added to the label. But experts at the agency reiterated that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks. … It said these problems should be considered “very rare side effects of the vaccine.”
Vox -
April 21, 2021
Researchers now estimate that more than 40,000 children in the United States have lost a parent to Covid-19. Per the estimates, published recently in JAMA Pediatrics, for every 13 people who die of Covid-19 in the US, one person under the age of 18 loses a parent. It’s part of a broader grief crisis that’s likely to leave a lasting toll on society. The death of a loved one at any age is hard. But for young people, it can be particularly destabilizing, altering the course of their lives.
STAT -
April 21, 2021
Three-quarters of Americans believe the U.S. government should start donating Covid-19 vaccines to other countries, but only after every person in the U.S. who wants a vaccine has received one, according to a new survey from STAT and The Harris Poll. At the same time, just over half of Americans said they agree with the idea that the Biden administration should immediately start donating vaccines to other countries in order to achieve global herd immunity, which reflects growing concern that the coronavirus cannot be contained until most of the world is vaccinated.
NPR -
April 21, 2021
For the last two decades, HIV/AIDS has been held at bay by potent antiviral drugs, aggressive testing and inventive public education campaigns. But the COVID-19 pandemic has caused profound disruptions in almost every aspect of that battle, grounding outreach teams, sharply curtailing testing and diverting critical staff away from laboratories and medical centers. The exact impact of one pandemic on the other is still coming into focus, but preliminary evidence is disturbing experts who have celebrated the enormous strides in HIV treatment.
AP -
April 20, 2021
The State Department on Monday urged Americans reconsider any international travel they may have planned and said it would issue specific warnings not to visit roughly 80% of the world’s countries due to risks from the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. hasn’t had a global advisory warning against international travel since August, when guidance was revoked by the Trump administration. The advice issued by the department isn’t a formal global advisory. Instead, it says the State Department will start using CDC standards as it prepares health and safety guidelines for individual countries.
CBS News -
April 20, 2021
COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna will make a third booster shot for its two-dose vaccine available to Americans by the fall, CEO Stéphane Bancel said this week. Moderna's vaccine is more than 90% effective against the coronavirus six months after the second shot, studies show. What remains unclear is how long immunity from the virus lasts. The same is true of Pfizer's two-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
AP -
April 20, 2021
Some large companies such as Amazon are offering workplace vaccinations through licensed health care providers, while smaller outfits are booking appointments for workers at outside locations. For employers, the vaccines are a critical step toward restoring normalcy at a time when they expect a spike in demand for their services as more people get inoculated. They are also betting that employees who did not initially trust the vaccine will have a change of heart when they see co-workers receiving it.
Scientific American -
April 20, 2021
[Scientists who track the spread of false information on social media honed their skills during the US presidential election last year] are now shifting focus, from false claims that the election was ‘stolen’ to untruths about COVID-19 vaccines. ... Researchers are launching projects to track and tag vaccine misinformation and disinformation on social media, as well as collecting massive amounts of data to understand the ways in which misinformation, political rhetoric and public policies all interact to influence vaccine uptake across the US.
CNN -
April 20, 2021
The risk of surface transmission of Covid-19 is low, the CDC said Monday. Far more important is airborne transmission -- and people who obsessively disinfect surfaces may be doing more harm than good. … Hill said the risk of transmission from touching a surface, while small, is elevated indoors. Outdoors, the sun and other factors can destroy viruses, Hill said.
USA Today -
April 20, 2021
Abbott Laboratories' BinaxNOW coronavirus self-test kits will be shipped to CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and Walmart locations and also will be sold online. The two-test kit, which last month received FDA emergency-use authorization for serial screening, will cost $23.99, the company said. Another rapid test made by Australia-based Ellume will be sold at CVS stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for $38.99. It also can be purchased online or at most CVS stores in other states by the end of May. These retail tests eliminate another barrier for people who want to test themselves without visiting a doctor or a telehealth provider. Both tests deliver results in about 15 minutes and don't require a lab.
AP -
April 19, 2021
Half of all adults in the U.S. have received at least one COVID-19 shot, the government announced Sunday, marking another milestone in the nation’s largest-ever vaccination campaign but leaving more work to do to convince skeptical Americans to roll up their sleeves. Almost 130 million people 18 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, or 50.4% of the total adult population, the CDC reported. Almost 84 million adults, or about 32.5% of the population, have been fully vaccinated.
Axios -
April 19, 2021
All 50 U.S. states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, have now made U.S. adults over the age of 16 eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, meeting President Biden's April 19 deadline. … Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont were the last states to make the vaccine available to all adults on Monday.
AP -
April 19, 2021
The global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million people Saturday amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France. … [The] true number is believed to be significantly higher because of possible government concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.