NPR -
January 13, 2021
The Trump administration is making several big changes to its COVID-19 vaccine distribution strategy, officials announced Tuesday, in a bid to jump-start the rollout and get more Americans vaccinated quickly. The first change is to call on states to expand immediately the pool of people eligible to receive vaccines to those 65 and older, and those with underlying health conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19.
AP -
January 13, 2021
Anyone flying to the U.S. will soon need to show proof of a negative test for COVID-19, health officials announced Tuesday. The CDC requirement expands on a similar one announced late last month for passengers coming from the United Kingdom. The new order takes effect in two weeks. … The new measures are designed to try to prevent travelers from bringing in newer forms of the virus that scientists say can spread more easily. The CDC order applies to U.S. citizens as well as foreign travelers. The agency said it delayed the effective date until Jan. 26 to give airlines and travelers time to comply.
American Cancer Society -
January 13, 2021
Overall cancer death rates in the United States dropped continuously from 1991 through 2018 for a total decrease of 31%, including a 2.4% decline from 2017 to 2018. The news comes from the American Cancer Society’s annual Cancer Statistics … The report estimates that in the U.S. in 2021, almost 1.9 million (1,898,160) new cancer cases will be diagnosed and 608,570 Americans will die from cancer. These projections are based on currently available incidence and mortality data through 2017 and 2018, respectively, and thus do not account for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer diagnoses or deaths.
AP -
January 13, 2021
Facing a slower-than-hoped coronavirus vaccine rollout, the Trump administration abruptly shifted gears Tuesday to speed the delivery of shots to more people. The move came as cases and deaths surged to alarming new highs. HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced a series of major changes to increase supply of vaccines, extend eligibility to more seniors and provide more locations for people to get shots. Administration officials describing the new policies conveyed a notable sense of urgency. One change will have some teeth to it. Azar said going forward the federal government will base each state’s allocation of vaccines partly on how successful states have been in administering those already provided.
AP -
January 13, 2021
And unlike in 2020, when the debate over lockdowns often split along party lines, both Democratic and Republican leaders are signaling their opposition to forced closings and other measures. Some have expressed fear of compounding the heavy economic damage inflicted by the outbreak.. Some see little patience among their constituents for more restrictions 10 months into the crisis. And some seem to be focused more on the rollout of the vaccines that could eventually vanquish the threat.
HealthDay -
January 13, 2021
Diabetics who've contracted COVID-19 should suspend their use of a class of common diabetes drugs known as sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), new research warns. People using these medications for diabetes are at risk of a potentially fatal complication called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), and it now appears that risk increases even more if they become sick with COVID-19, said senior researcher …
HealthDay -
January 13, 2021
There is no statistically significant difference in the sensitivity of saliva versus nasopharyngeal swabs for detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), according to a review published online Jan. 12 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. … Data were included from 37 studies with 7,332 paired nasopharyngeal swab and saliva samples.
11ALIVE -
January 13, 2021
WSB-TV -
January 13, 2021
FOX5 Atlanta -
January 13, 2021
Reuters -
January 12, 2021
Nearly 9 million Americans had been given their first COVID-19 vaccination dose as of Monday morning, the CDC said, as states scrambled to step up inoculations that have yet to slow the roaring pandemic. The 8,987,322 people who have been given the first of two shots, according to the CDC, represent less than one-third of the total doses distributed to states by the U.S. government.
Reuters -
January 12, 2021
The United States lost more than 22,000 lives to COVID-19 last week, setting a record for the second week in a row, as new cases also hit a weekly high. California was the state with the most deaths at 3,315 in the week ended Jan. 10, or about eight out of every 100,000 people, up 44% from the prior week, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports. … On average, COVID-19 killed 3,239 people per day in the United States last week, more than the number killed by the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
CNN -
January 12, 2021
"Based on scientific understanding of viruses, it is highly likely there are many variants evolving simultaneously across the globe," a spokesman said in a statement emailed to CNN. "Additionally, there is a strong possibility there are variants in the United States; however, it could weeks or months to identify if there is a single variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 fueling the surge in the United States similar to the surge in the United Kingdom," the spokesman added.
USA Today -
January 12, 2021
As COVID-19 raged last year, the seasonal flu all but vanished, according to data from the CDC. During the 2019 flu season from Sept. 29 to Dec. 28, the CDC reported more than 65,000 cases of influenza nationwide. During the same period this flu season, the agency reported 1,016 cases. Health experts said that high vaccination rates against the flu – combined with social distancing, mask-wearing and hand-washing employed to stop the spread of the coronavirus – played a huge role in preventing influenza transmission.