Reuters -
March 23, 2021
Johnson & Johnson should come close to hitting its target of delivering 20 million doses of its one-shot COVID-19 vaccine in March after its shipments stalled in recent weeks, a top White House official said on Monday, while declining to say how many will go out this week.
Fox News -
March 23, 2021
Researchers say there is mounting evidence suggesting that hearing loss and other auditory issues are strongly associated with COVID-19 infection, according to a systematic review. … [Researchers] found that up to 7.6% of COVID-19 patients suffered from hearing loss, 14.8% complained of tinnitus and 7.2% reported vertigo.
NBC News -
March 23, 2021
A review of research published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine describes the potential long-term effects of the coronavirus on the entire body, highlighting the challenges long-haulers face in their recovery. The review outlines in detail every organ affected by long-term Covid-19, including the lungs, heart, kidneys and skin, as well as the gastrointestinal, neurologic and endocrine systems.
HealthDay -
March 23, 2021
Italian researchers have examined the thyroids of dozens of patients who've recovered from moderate-to-severe cases of COVID-19. The study found evidence that SARS-CoV-2 infection may trigger an inflammation of the gland in some patients. Whether that inflammation can cause long-term dysfunction is still unclear, however. … Muller's group noted that in the spring of 2020, 15% of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in ICUs at a medical center in Milan had changes in their thyroid hormones due to a number of causes, including thyroid inflammation.
AP -
March 23, 2021
Airlines and other tourism-related businesses are pushing the White House to draw up a plan in the next five weeks to boost international travel and eliminate restrictions that were imposed early in the pandemic … They want people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to be exempt from testing requirements before entering the US. They also want the CDC to say that vaccinated people can travel safely.
STAT -
March 22, 2021
AstraZeneca said Monday that the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with the University of Oxford reduced both mild and serious forms of the disease, paving the way for a likely U.S. authorization of the vaccine. Doctors, regulators, and government officials the world over are likely to breathe a sigh of relief at the results, which are better than expected and appear materially higher than those in previous studies. The two-dose vaccine reduced symptomatic disease by 79%, the company said in a press release, and reduced severe Covid-19 and hospitalization by 100%. AstraZeneca said that the vaccine was equally effective in people over 65, where it had 80% efficacy.
HealthDay -
March 22, 2021
In a move that should make reopening schools an easier task, the CDC on Friday lowered its social distancing recommendation for most classrooms to 3 feet. That should enable many schools to keep all students enrolled in a class within the same room. … Until now, 6 feet of social distancing was recommended.
STAT -
March 22, 2021
In New Jersey, average daily cases fell below 3,000 in late February and have recently been around 3,800. Michigan saw its average daily infections go from just over 1,000 to more than 2,000 over the same period, and hospitalizations have been increasing for three weeks. Other states, including Minnesota and Missouri, have also seen infections inch up in recent weeks, while many other states’ progress from earlier this year has flattened out…
PEOPLE -
March 22, 2021
On Friday, the cruise line announced a new lineup of summer 2021 cruises, which are set to begin departing from the Bahamas in June. The seven-night cruises will be manned by vaccinated crews, and all adult passengers will also need to be "fully vaccinated," the company shared in a press release. The trips will also be open to passengers under the age of 18 who have tested negative for COVID-19.
NPR -
March 22, 2021
Unemployment benefits fraud was rampant in 2020 as the government rushed to send out COVID-19 relief. The DOL’s Office of Inspector General has estimated the amount of benefits stolen was at least $63 billion, based on earlier patterns of unemployment fraud. But a lot of the fraud is coming to light only now, during tax time.
HealthDay -
March 22, 2021
While vitamin D levels of 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) or more are typically considered sufficient, Black people who had levels of 30 to 40 ng/ml had nearly triple the odds of testing positive for COVID-19 compared to people with levels of 40 ng/ml or more. … Statistically significant links between vitamin D levels and COVID risk were not found in white people.
PEOPLE -
March 22, 2021
Overseas spectators will not be allowed at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics amid the COVID-19 pandemic, officials announced Saturday. Citing the challenges of new COVID-19 variants and restrictions on international travel, officials said in a press release that not allowing overseas spectators "will further contribute to ensure safe and secure Games for all participants and the Japanese public."
NPR -
March 22, 2021
Two teams of European scientists, working independently, say they believe they've identified the cause of a rare blood clotting condition that has occurred in some people after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. If correct, their research could mean any blood clots that occur could be easily treated. There were reports earlier this month of roughly 30 blood clots occurring after vaccination, a few of them fatal. This led more than a dozen European countries to suspend their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
ABC News -
March 19, 2021
Even with the race to vaccinate as many Americans as possible accelerating, some experts are warning that if Americans do not also follow proper safety and mitigation measures, the U.S. could see a COVID-19 resurgence. Although the country's national daily case average continues to fall -- about 32.5% over the last month -- nearly a third of all states have seen their average number of cases rise at least 10%.
AP -
March 19, 2021
“I’m proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into our administration, we will have met our goal,” Biden said. He promised to unveil a new vaccination target next week, as the U.S. is on pace to have enough of the three currently authorized vaccines to cover the entire adult population just 10 weeks from now.
AP -
March 19, 2021
The European Union’s drug regulatory agency said Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine doesn’t increase the overall incidence of blood clots and that the benefits of using it outweigh the possible risks, paving the way for European countries to resume dispensing the shots. France, Italy and Germany promptly announced they will start using the vaccine again on Friday.