Tag Archives: pandemic

The Hill reports: Public health experts say state and local governments are underfunded and unprepared for what is expected to be the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. While the Trump administration has spent more than $10 billion supporting the development of COVID-19 vaccines, just $340 million has been allocated to agencies below the federal level to help with distribution …

STAT News reports: Athletes, politicians, and other wealthy or well-connected people have managed to get special treatment throughout the pandemic, including preferential access to testing and unapproved therapies. Early access to coronavirus vaccines is likely to be no different, medical experts and ethicists told STAT. It could happen in any number of ways, they said: fudging the definition of “essential …

Pew Research reports: Overall, 60% of Americans say they would definitely or probably get a vaccine for the coronavirus, if one were available today, up from 51% who said this in September. About four-in-ten (39%) say they definitely or probably would not get a coronavirus vaccine, though about half of this group – or 18% of U.S. adults – says …

Time Magazine reports: Joe Biden said Thursday that he will ask Americans to commit to 100 days of wearing masks as one of his first acts as president, stopping just short of the nationwide mandate he’s pushed before to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Biden said he would make the request of Americans on …

Sacramento’s CBS News affiliate reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday a new regional stay-at-home order for areas where capacity at intensive care units falls below 15 percent. Newsom announced the new plans amid an unprecedented surge of new coronavirus cases in the nation’s most populous state amid fears that hospitals could be overwhelmed within weeks. The new order …

Reuters reports: More than 2,800 Covid-19 deaths were reported Wednesday in the United States — the most the country has ever reported in a single day — as health care officials say their staff and facilities are struggling to support burgeoning numbers of patients. The number of Covid-19 patients in US hospitals Wednesday — 100,226, according to the COVID Tracking …

The Hill reports: The U.S. is hoping to give a COVID-19 vaccine to 100 million people by the end of February, the head of the administration’s Operation Warp Speed told reporters Wednesday. Moncef Slaoui said that number essentially represents all the nation’s frontline health workers, the elderly, and people with underlying conditions. Slaoui, who was tapped by the Trump administration …

Reuters reports: The United States set a pair of alarming coronavirus records Wednesday, surpassing 200,000 new infections and topping 100,000 covid-19 patients hospitalized — the first time the country has reached either metric in a single day. And Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the worst might still be ahead. He predicted that the …

CNBC reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday announced shortened alternatives to its recommended quarantine for people who were exposed to someone with Covid-19, Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s Covid-19 incident manager, said. The agency previously recommended that anyone who was exposed to Covid-19 quarantine for 14 days. Walke said the agency still recommends a 14-day quarantine …

The Daily Beast reports: The virus that would go on to ruin the vast majority of 2020 was already spreading in the United States before Christmas last year, a government study has found. The finding was made by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it suggests that the coronavirus was infecting people around the world …

Mediaite reports: On MSNBC Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski — the Operation Warp Speed director of supply, production, and distribution — gave an encouraging timeline about when all Americans will be able to get vaccinated. Towards the end of the interview about the vaccine development and distribution, anchor Yasmin Vossoughian asked, “What is your expectations come June for how many …

The New York Daily News reports: Gov. Cuomo unveiled a revamped strategy to deal with New York’s surging coronavirus cases on Monday with a focus on avoiding an overwhelmed health care system. More than 3,500 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state, a growing number that the governor warned could lead to renewed shutdowns on a scale not …

Axios reports: Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster, told AP that after the World Health Organization declared on March 11 the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic, searches for the word on Merriam-Webster.com were 115,806% higher than for the same period in 2019. Runners up for word of the year based on lookup surges related to the pandemic were …

The Hill reports: The number of coronavirus infections in the United States surpassed 13 million on Friday, just six days after the country hit the 12 million threshold. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has had at least 13,047,202 infections, with at least 264,624 people dead as a result of the virus. The U.S. maintains the …

NPR reports: North Korea is taking increasingly harsh measures to stop the coronavirus from entering the country, including executing an official in August who violated anti-virus rules, South Korean intelligence officials told lawmakers on Friday. In a closed-door briefing to a parliamentary intelligence committee on Friday, the officials told lawmakers that the executed North Korean had brought goods through customs …

Gothamist reports: The number of people in the United States hospitalized for COVID-19 on Thursday topped 90,000, marking a record high for the 17th day in a row and a grim sign of what lies ahead as infections continue to soar. Around 125,000 new coronavirus cases were reported across the country. However, the full picture of infections and deaths was …

The Hill reports: The United Parcel Service (UPS) has established its own dry ice production in its U.S. facilities and will distribute ultra-cold temperature freezers to help in the distribution efforts for COVID-19 vaccines over the coming months. In preparation for the distribution, UPS on Tuesday said it can produce as much as 1,200 pounds of dry ice an hour …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose team is finally free to coordinate transition planning, is hurriedly attempting to fill a void in pandemic response leadership left by President Trump, who has largely ignored the escalating 2,000-death-a-day crisis and made few public appearances since the election. Mr. Biden is expected to take a major step next …

Reuters reports: The White House is considering rescinding entry bans for most non-U.S. citizens who recently were in Brazil, Britain, Ireland and 26 other European countries, five U.S. and airline officials told Reuters. The Trump administration imposed the bans in a bid to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic. It is not considering lifting separate entry bans on most non-U.S. citizens …

The New York Times reports: Coronavirus outbreaks in the United States were once traced back to their origins, whether at busy restaurants or crowded meatpacking plants. But now that the virus is spreading rapidly in much of the country — more than 2,200 U.S. deaths from Covid-19 were reported on Tuesday alone, making it the deadliest day in more than …