Coronavirus

Boston’s NBC News affiliate reports: Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., has tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced Friday. Lynch was tested for coronavirus after a staff member in his office tested positive earlier in the week. The congressman received his positive test Friday afternoon. A statement from Pfizer said that it can take seven days for protection from the second …

The Wall Street Journal reports: U.S. travelers and commuters will be required to wear a mask on nearly all forms of public transportation and inside of transportation hubs, according to a late Friday emergency order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mandate, which goes into effect on Tuesday and applies to most everyone over the age of …

Variety reports: The April dates of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and its companion Stagecoach country music festival have been canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser. A rep for the officer tells Variety that it remains possible that the festivals could be rescheduled for later in the …

NBC New York reports: New York City restaurants can reopen indoor dining at 25 percent capacity on Valentine’s Day, one of the busiest dining days of the year, provided current downward trends in positivity and hospitalization rates continue, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday. He also announced that wedding receptions of up to 50 percent or 150 people will be permitted …

The Washington Post reports: White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that a briefing Biden is receiving later from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would highlight “the cost of inaction” on the president’s coronavirus relief legislation — a move designed to increase pressure on Congress to move forward. The briefing, Psaki said, would demonstrate “the impact of a delay in …

Changing America reports: Emerging data from Israel indicates that the vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna, may be even more effective than previous results from clinical trials suggested. Israel’s Ministry of Health studied more than 700,000 fully inoculated people—meaning those who received two doses of either vaccine—in the country and saw only 0.04 percent contract a …

The New York Times reports: The Pentagon is considering sending active-duty troops to large, federally run coronavirus vaccine centers, a major departure for the department and the first significant sign that the Biden administration is moving to take more control of a program that states are struggling to manage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is hoping to set up roughly …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Johnson & Johnson said its experimental Covid-19 vaccine was 66% effective at protecting people from moderate to severe disease in a large clinical trial, positive results that could pave the way for its deployment across the U.S. within weeks. The J&J vaccine also appeared to be generally safe and well tolerated among the 44,325 adults …

New York City’s ABC News affiliate reports: New York City’s outdoor dining set ups, like those in the West Village, are not going to get much use today, with wind chills expected to be in the single digits. Today would be a great day to eat indoors, as the city’s decimated restaurant industry anxiously awaits Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement on …

USA Today reports: Another COVID-19 candidate vaccine appears to be safe and roughly 90% effective against the virus that causes the disease. It also protects against at least a few of the variants that have arisen in recent months. On Thursday, Novavax, a Gaithersburg, Maryland-based biotechnology firm, released interim results from two clinical trials of its candidate vaccine, one in …

The New York Daily News reports: A report released Thursday by Attorney General Letitia James accuses the Cuomo administration of undercounting COVID nursing home deaths by as much as 50%. James’ office conducted a months-long investigation into the state’s handling of elder care facilities during the pandemic and how nursing homes failed to protect vulnerable seniors from the deadly virus. …

From Oregon’s Josephine County: When Josephine County Public Health staff and volunteers concluded their mass vaccination event at the Illinois Valley High School this afternoon, they never guessed they might be setting up an impromptu clinic on the way back to Grants Pass. But that’s exactly what happened when a snowstorm stranded about 20 personnel on Highway 199 near Hayes …

The Hill reports: A Pfizer study released Wednesday determined that the mutations in the COVID-19 variants originally found in the United Kingdom and South Africa have “small effects” on the effectiveness of the company’s vaccine developed with BioNTech. The preliminary research, conducted by Pfizer and University of Texas Medical Branch scientists, concluded that the results showed no need for an …

The New York Times reports: President John Magufuli of Tanzania, speaking to a large, unmasked crowd in the country’s northwest on Wednesday, questioned the efficacy of vaccines and discouraged the Ministry of Health from pursuing doses, saying the shots were not “beneficial” to the East African nation. “Vaccines don’t work,” Mr. Magufuli, 61, said in his speech. “If the white …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: As Floridians get increasingly antsy for COVID vaccines, there are growing questions about why Gov. Ron DeSantis granted Publix exclusive rights to provide vaccines in some places. Why only Publix, whose vaccine-appointment portal filled up 90 minutes after opening Wednesday? It’s only natural to wonder — especially after reading stories like: “Publix Vaccine Rollout Follows Grocer’s …

The Seattle Times reports: Last Friday, Molly Stearns, chief development officer at Overlake Medical Center & Clinics, emailed about 110 donors who gave more than $10,000 to the Eastside hospital system, informing them that highly coveted vaccine slots were available. “Dear Overlake major donors…” the email read. “We’re pleased to share that we have 500 new open appointments in the …

The Washington Post reports: Months-long lockdowns. Entire city populations herded through the streets for mandatory testing. The people of China could be forgiven for thinking they had seen it all during the coronavirus pandemic. But now they face a new indignity: the addition of anal swabs — yes, you read that right — to the testing regimen for those in …

The New York Post reports: Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday teased an economic reopening of New York City within the next few weeks — promising that “you’re going to see the arts coming back.” “You’ll see the reopening of New York City within these coming weeks,” Cuomo said on MSNBC, though he provided few details. He noted that 7 million …

CBS News reports: Federal public health experts and members of the White House COVID-19 response team are holding their inaugural briefing Wednesday on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, after President Joe Biden announced plans to ramp up the weekly supply of COVID-19 vaccines to states and territories in the coming days. The group will take questions from reporters …

“I don’t know when my number gets called, I’m actually beginning to have doubts. I’ve been telling my friends I’m getting the vaccine. Half of them agree and the other half think I’m absolutely nuts. They wouldn’t take it in a million years. I don’t know who to listen to.” – Sean Hannity, on last night’s show. Hannity dabbling in …