Tag: coronaviurs

CDC says fully vaccinated people can take fewer precautions

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People who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can take fewer precautions in certain situations, including socializing indoors without masks when in the company of low-risk or other vaccinated individuals, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Monday.

Why it matters: Per the report, there’s early evidence that suggests vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and are potentially less likely to transmit the virus to other people. At the time of its publication, the CDC said the guidance would apply to about 10% of Americans.

What they’re saying: “If grandparents have been vaccinated, they can visit their daughter and her family, even if they have not been vaccinated … so long as the daughter and her family are not at risk for severe disease,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said at a press conference on Monday. Continue reading.

FDA analysis finds Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine is safe and effective

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The Food and Drug Administration’s staff released a briefing document on Wednesday endorsing Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot coronavirus vaccine as safe and effective.

What’s next: An FDA advisory panel will meet Friday to review the briefing document and vote on whether to recommend an emergency use authorization (EUA). The FDA could then issue the (EUA) as soon as this weekend, clearing the way for distribution in the U.S. to begin.

Details: The shot was found to be 66.9% effective against moderate to severe/critical COVID-19 cases 14 days after vaccination, and 66.1% effective after 28 days. Against severe/critical cases, the vaccine was 76.6% effective after 14 days and 85.4% effective after 28 days. Continue reading.

U.S. Is Blind to Contagious New Virus Variant, Scientists Warn

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It’s not too late to curb the contagious variant’s spread in the U.S., experts say — but only with a national program for genetic sequencing.

With no robust system to identify genetic variations of the coronavirus, experts warn that the United States is woefully ill-equipped to track a dangerous new mutant, leaving health officials blind as they try to combat the grave threat.

The variant, which is now surging in Britain and burdening its hospitals with new cases, is rare for now in the United States. But it has the potential to explode in the next few weeks, putting new pressures on American hospitals, some of which are already near the breaking point.

The United States has no large-scale, nationwide system for checking coronavirus genomes for new mutations, including the ones carried by the new variant. About 1.4 million people test positive for the virus each week, but researchers are only doing genome sequencing — a method that can definitively spot the new variant — on fewer than 3,000 of those weekly samples. And that work is done by a patchwork of academic, state and commercial laboratories. Continue reading.

Sneezed on, cussed at, ignored: Airline workers battle mask resistance with scant government backup

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As the man returned from the lavatory with a mask dangling from one ear, a flight attendant asked him to put it on properly.

“Why? Is something going on that I should know about?” the passenger asked, before grabbing the mask and ripping the string. “Damn it, I guess I can’t wear it now.”

Other passengers have verbally abused and taunted flight attendants trying to enforce airline mask requirements, treating the potentially lifesaving act as a pandemic game of cat-and-mouse. A loophole allowing the removal of masks while consuming food and beverages is a favorite dodge. Continue reading.

Trump’s Focus as the Pandemic Raged: What Would It Mean for Him?

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President Trump missed his chance to show that he could rise to the moment in the final chapter of his presidency and meet the defining challenge of his tenure.

WASHINGTON — It was a warm summer Wednesday, Election Day was looming and President Trump was even angrier than usual at the relentless focus on the coronavirus pandemic.

“You’re killing me! This whole thing is! We’ve got all the damn cases,” Mr. Trump yelled at Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, during a gathering of top aides in the Oval Office on Aug. 19. “I want to do what Mexico does. They don’t give you a test till you get to the emergency room and you’re vomiting.”

Mexico’s record in fighting the virus was hardly one for the United States to emulate. But the president had long seen testing not as a vital way to track and contain the pandemic but as a mechanism for making him look bad by driving up the number of known cases. Continue reading.

What is in the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill

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Lawmakers late on Sunday released a long-awaited $900 billion coronavirus relief bill that is expected to be passed by Congress on Monday and signed into law by President Trump. 

The relief package will be combined with a $1.4 trillion measure to fund federal agencies through the end of September and a package extending expiring tax provisions. 

Both Democrats and Republicans touted various aspects of the relief package, though Democrats wanted a significantly larger bill. Continue reading.

Fox News Viewers Increasingly Believe Covid-19 Conspiracy Theory

A new Axios/Ipsos poll finds that people who get their news from Fox News are more likely to buy into a conspiracy theory that has frequently been spread by right-wing media since the pandemic began: The false and baseless idea that the coronavirus death count has been inflated.

The poll found that 62 percent of Fox News watchers said the real number of coronavirus deaths is lower than the official number, closely aligning with 59 percent of Republicans. By contrast, only 9 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Americans overall professed this view.

And this figure is going up, too: When the poll previously asked this question in May, it showed 44 percent of Fox News watchers and 40 percent of Republicans thought the deaths were over-counted, compared to just seven percent of Democrats and 23 percent of Americans overall. Continue reading.