Virus Overwhelms U.S. and Europe Even as Vaccines Roll Out – The New York Times

Heres what you need to know:People handing out hand sanitizer on the streets in So Paulo, Brazil, on Friday.Credit...Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

As the coronavirus continues its surge across the United States and Europe, where vaccinations recently began, total infections around the world have now topped 75 million.

In the United States, more than 128,000 people had been vaccinated as of Friday, according to a New York Times database tracking vaccinations. But that total is just slightly more than half the number of new cases reported across the country the same day.

The United States, the worlds largest coronavirus hot spot with more than 17.6 million people who have been infected over all, on Friday reported its first single-day caseload of more than 250,000 new infections.

In Sweden, there have been 66 new daily cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days, a rate nearly identical to that of the United States. Lithuania has the worlds highest current rate of spread, with a daily average of 98.6 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week.

Over 15 million total cases have been reported in Europe, with the continents boundaries defined by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. India has reported more than 10 million infections, the second most of any country, followed by Brazil with more than seven million.

More than 1.6 million people around the world have died from Covid-19, according to a New York Times database. In the U.S. alone, more than 315,000 people have died 3,611 of them on Wednesday, shattering the previous single-day record of 3,157 on Dec. 9.

Over 137,000 people in the United Kingdom have been vaccinated, according to Bloomberg, with 108,000 of those in England, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced plans for a harsh lockdown on London and much of the countrys southeast. The U.K. reported 28,507 new cases on Friday.

China, which has reported only 96,400 cases total, says it has already administered more than a million doses, though its vaccines have not been fully tested. (Chinese officials have said that so far there have been no adverse reactions.)

On Friday, an international body established to promote global access to Covid vaccines, known as Covax, said it had reached deals with manufacturers to deliver a billion doses to low- and middle-income countries.

The announcement included news about a method for countries with excess doses to share them. Wealthy countries like the United Kingdom and the United States have secured a surplus of vaccines. Canada, which could receive as much as six times the amount needed to vaccinate its entire population, said it would contribute its extra doses through Covax. France made a similar commitment.

The sharing would be welcome help for lower-middle-income countries like India, Egypt and El Salvador, which have not secured enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations. Even upper-middle-income nations like Argentina, Turkey and Thailand have not met the 100 percent threshold.

Vaccine preorders as a percentage of population

Latin America

(excluding Brazil)

Vaccine preorders as a percentage of population

Latin America

(excluding Brazil)

transcript

transcript

Last week we kicked off the initial distribution of the Pfizer vaccine, following E.U.A. Through snowstorms, holiday rush and with everything else going on in the country, we delivered the first 2.9 million doses across the country, to every state. And we saw vaccines going into arms. What a remarkable feat. Last night, the F.D.A. granted emergency use authorization to Moderna. And America, we are ready to distribute that vaccine. Now, this week many have heard concerns about allegations of vaccine doses being cut. I want to assure everybody, and I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication. Jurisdictions have asked me for planning numbers, and rightly so. We want to be open and transparent with them at all times. I have to work on the estimates that we know, and we provide them forecasts accordingly. But vaccine manufacturing is a very arduous, technical capability. At the end of the day, the number of doses available to us to allocate ended up being lower. And so as we gave forecasts to the jurisdictions, and governors and states, work their priorities against those forecasts, when we had to decide what was going to eventually be shipped out, I had to lower the allocations to meet the releasable doses that were presented to me. So to the governors, to the governors staffs: Please accept my personal apology if this was disruptive in your decision-making and in your conversations with the people of your great state. I will work hard to correct this.

Gen. Gustave F. Perna, who heads Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administrations multiagency effort to get coronavirus vaccines out to Americans, apologized repeatedly on Saturday morning for confusion over vaccine deliveries to states.

He attributed some of the problems to the federal governments miscalculation of how many doses of Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine could be shipped. The discrepancies disrupted vaccination plans and stirred consternation in at least 14 states.

General Perna is in charge of the logistics for distributing the coronavirus vaccines to the states, and he took full and sole responsibility for the delays and confusion around the vaccine rollout, and for the discrepancies between the number of doses states were expecting and what they are receiving.

It was my fault, he said. It was a planning error, and I am responsible.

I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication, General Perna said at a news conference. He said the number of vaccines available to allocate ended up being lower than initial forecasts.

I had to lower the allocations to meet the releasable doses that were presented to me, General Perna said. So to the governors, he said, please accept my personal apology if this was disruptive in your decision-making.

He added that he did not understand with exactness the requirements for the release of each batch of doses. He referred several times to the Food and Drug Administrations involvement, but was unclear about how that would have delayed shipments.

The F.D.A. merely requires a certificate that includes the results of quality control tests for each lot of vaccine at least 48 hours before distribution and does not require the certificates be reviewed before shipments occur. That enables the F.D.A. to keep track of the batches being shipped. The requirement is included in the emergency authorization paperwork the F.D.A. sent to Pfizer.

Officials in Oregon, Iowa, Washington, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Vermont, Minnesota, Nevada, Connecticut, California, Michigan, Idaho, Virginia and New Jersey said that they were caught off guard on Wednesday when they learned that next weeks shipment of the vaccine would contain fewer doses than the first weeks.

Governors and state health departments have spoken with alarm this week of how few vaccines they have received compared with what had been promised.

This is disruptive and frustrating, Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington wrote on Twitter on Thursday. We need accurate, predictable numbers to plan and ensure on-the-ground success.

Dr. Mark Levine, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health, said in a Friday briefing that all my colleagues in the region are reporting a 25 to 35 percent decrease in their allocation for next week.

As we were walking in, I learned as many as 975 doses out of an expected 5,850 doses would not be coming in when we expected, he said. What everyone around the country is upset about, in addition to just the number, is theres been no communication, so theres no understanding of what this really means.

On Saturday, General Perna noted that boxes of the Moderna vaccine, which was approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, were being packed and loaded, and that truckloads would begin rolling out on Sunday.

He said that the government remained on track to allocate about 20 million vaccine doses across the country by the end of December, and that the distribution of those doses would be pushing into the first week of January.

There is no problem with the process, he said. There is no problem with the Pfizer vaccine. There is no problem with the Moderna vaccine.

He also expressed confidence that we will have the agility to correct ourselves and get things right, so that the next time it will go flawlessly.

transcript

transcript

First, we will introduce new restrictions in the most affected areas, specifically those parts of London, the Southeast and the East of England. Second, were issuing new advice on travel. Although the new variant is concentrated in tier-4 areas, it is nonetheless present at lower levels around the country. So were asking everyone in all tiers to stay local. Third, we must, Im afraid, look again at Christmas. And as prime minister, its my duty to take difficult decisions to do what is right to protect the people of this country. Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus, the potential risk it poses, it is with a very heavy heart. I must tell you, we cannot continue with Christmas as planned. In England, those living in tier-4 areas should not mix with anyone outside their own household at Christmas, though, support bubbles will remain in place for those of particular risk of loneliness or isolation. Across the rest of the country, the Christmas rules allowing up to three households to meet will now be limited to Christmas Day only rather than the five days as previously set out. As before, there will be no relaxation on the 31st of January, so people must not break the rules at New Year. They must not break the rules at New Year, its very, very important to emphasize that.

LONDON Alarmed by what he called a faster-spreading variant of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson abruptly reversed course on Saturday and imposed a wholesale lockdown on London and most of Englands southeast.

The decision, which Mr. Johnson announced after an emergency meeting of his cabinet, came after the government got new evidence of a variant first detected several weeks ago in Kent, southeast of London, which the prime minister asserted was 70 percent more transmissible than previous versions. Cabinet ministers were told that in London, cases had nearly doubled in the last week, with the new variant accounting for 60 percent of those.

The new measures, which take effect at the end of Saturday night, are designed, in effect, to cut off the capital and its surrounding counties from the rest of England. They are the most severe measures the government has taken since it imposed a lockdown on the country in March, and they reflect a fear that the new variant could supercharge the transmission of the virus as winter takes hold.

When the virus changes its method of attack, we must change our method of defense, a somber Mr. Johnson said at a news conference. We have to act on information as we have it, because this is now spreading very fast.

Viral mutations are not usual, and this variant known as VUI 202012/01 has been detected in a handful of other countries, but medical experts expressed alarm about its apparent infectiousness. British ministers have been told that there is no evidence that the new variant is inherently more dangerous, or that it is more resistant to vaccines than others.

Its infectiousness, however, raises the prospect of accelerating infections, leading to more hospitalizations and deaths. The British government said it had notified the World Health Organization about the prevalence of the new variant.

Though Mr. Johnson said a few days ago that it would be inhuman to cancel Christmas, that will be the broad effect of the new restrictions on social mixing. A plan to allow three households to meet together over the holiday will be scrapped in London and the southeast, with no household mixing permitted at all. In other parts of the country, three households will be allowed to gather, but only on Christmas Day.

In the Netherlands, the government said shortly after midnight on Sunday local time that a case of the new variant had been identified there this month. The Dutch government said it would ban flights from the United Kingdom starting Sunday at 6 a.m. until at the latest Jan. 1.

The coronavirus has mutated many times since it emerged in China in 2019, according to epidemiologists. On Friday, South Africa reported it had identified a new variant, which it said was driving a new wave of infections there. It is not clear whether it is same variant as the one identified in Britain.

Senators broke through an impasse late Saturday night over a Republican effort to curtail the powers of the Federal Reserve, clearing away what had been seen as the final hurdle to a deal on a $900 billion stimulus compromise as lawmakers raced against a Sunday-night deadline to avoid a government shutdown.

With time running out for a deal, Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, agreed to narrow his effort to rein in the central bank, according to three aides familiar with the discussion. All three aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted that the precise language was still being finalized.

The agreement was a critical breakthrough for lawmakers who have been racing to complete the emergency plan to rush direct payments, unemployment benefits and food and rental assistance to millions of Americans struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as relief to businesses and funds for vaccine distribution. While negotiators were still wrangling over a number of smaller issues, the Federal Reserve language had emerged as the biggest impediment to a final agreement.

If things continue on this path, and nothing gets in the way, well be able to vote tomorrow, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, told reporters as he left the Capitol shortly before midnight. House and Senate.

The breakthrough came as a C.D.C. panel endorsed a second vaccine, by Moderna, and the country confronted another stark reminder of how desperately vaccines are needed: Fridays record caseload of over 251,000 new coronavirus cases, nearly double the 128,000 people who had been vaccinated in the United States as of Friday, according to a New York Times database tracking vaccinations. Officials are warning that hospitals, which now hold nearly 114,000 Covid-19 patients, could soon be overwhelmed.

Mr. Toomey had sought to bar the Fed and Treasury Department from setting up any loan program similar to those established this year that have helped to keep credit flowing to corporate, municipal and medium-size business borrowers during the pandemic recession.

The agreed-upon alternative, offered by Mr. Schumer and still being drafted near midnight on Saturday, aides familiar with the process said, would bar only programs that were more or less exact copycats of the ones newly employed in 2020.

Were right within reach, Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told House Democrats in a party conference call on Saturday. But she said Mr. Toomeys late-stage demands to rein in the Fed were slowing the process.

President Trump, who has been largely absent from the stimulus talks in recent weeks, chastised Congress shortly after midnight on Sunday.

Why isnt Congress giving our people a Stimulus Bill? Mr. Trump said on Twitter. GET IT DONE, and give them more money in direct payments.

The emerging deal would send direct payments of $600 to many Americans and provide enhanced federal jobless payments of $300 per week until early spring. It would also provide hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up small businesses, schools and other institutions struggling amid the pandemic.

Lawmakers and aides in both parties acknowledged that the Fed provision presented the most significant hurdle to a final agreement, even though negotiators were still haggling over a number of outstanding technical details, including how to provide for food assistance and the scope of unemployment benefits.

With government funding set to lapse Sunday and both chambers hoping to merge the stimulus package with a catchall measure to cover all federal spending for the remainder of the fiscal year, time was dwindling to find a resolution.

Without action by Congress, two programs designed to expand and enhance unemployment benefits are set to expire in the coming days, leaving about 12 million Americans without federal support. A number of other benefits are set to expire at the end of the year.

An independent panel of experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted on Saturday to endorse a second coronavirus vaccine for use in adults 18 and older.

The committees recommendation, by a vote of 11 in favor and none against (with three recusals due to conflicts of interest), followed Fridays announcement that the vaccine, made by Moderna, had been granted an emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.

The advisory committees endorsement now awaits final approval from Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the C.D.C., which is expected shortly.

The committees vote signals to hospitals and doctors that they may proceed to inoculate patients with the Moderna vaccine. Some 5.9 million doses are scheduled to ship on Sunday, and the first vaccinations are expected to begin on Monday.

Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was authorized for use in people 16 and older, Modernas inoculations are intended for adults only. (Moderna did not begin its pediatric studies until Dec. 9 and did not expect to have a full set of data until sometime next year.)

In adults, Modernas vaccine was more than 94 percent effective at preventing symptomatic cases of Covid-19. Its still unclear how well the two vaccines fare at curbing coronavirus transmission.

Much of the advisory committees deliberations centered on the severe allergic reactions reported after injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which contains ingredients similar to those in Modernas recipe.

Six cases of anaphylaxis have now been documented in the United States, as well as two in Britain. In addition, milder allergic reactions have been reported. Experts have said these cases shouldnt deter a vast majority of people from getting the vaccine. More than 272,000 doses of Pfizers vaccine have already been doled out nationwide.

Half of the people who received Modernas vaccine in clinical trials also reported some uncomfortable symptoms, including fatigue, headaches and soreness, after their second shot, given about four weeks after the first. Some volunteers also developed fevers or rashes around injection sites.

Incidents like these appear to be much more common with Modernas vaccine than Pfizers, which contains a smaller dose of active ingredients. But most of the side effects disappeared within a day or so of the shot.

Neither Moderna nor Pfizer has yet collected data in people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. But none of the 13 volunteers who became pregnant while participating in Modernas clinical trials, six of whom received the vaccine, reported harmful effects.

Dr. Jacqueline Miller, Modernas senior vice president, also drew attention to the representation of people of varying races and ethnicities in Modernas trials a nod to the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on communities of color.

In discussions this week, experts repeatedly noted the importance of partnering with representatives from communities of color to reaffirm vaccine safety and efficacy for people who might be skeptical of the shots.

On Sunday, C.D.C. officials will deliver more guidance about allocating the newly cleared vaccines.

Arriving at the hospital wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt under his jacket, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli to be inoculated against Covid-19 on Saturday night, saying he wanted to set an example and encourage all Israelis to get the vaccine.

One small jab for man, and a huge step for all our health, Mr. Netanyahu declared moments after receiving the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccination at the Sheba Medical Center in a Tel Aviv suburb at an event that was broadcast live on television.

His health minister, Yuli Edelstein, went next.

The pair kicked off a national vaccination campaign that prioritizes frontline health workers. Thousands of Israelis over age 60 have also received appointments to be vaccinated as early as this week.

Israel has experienced two major waves of coronavirus and, with numbers of infections on the rise again, may soon be facing a third lockdown.

The country has secured millions of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, potentially enough for the entire population of nine million, though it is not clear how many have arrived in the country.

In the early hours of Feb. 7, Chinas powerful internet censors experienced an unfamiliar and deeply unsettling sensation. They felt they were losing control.

The news was spreading quickly that Li Wenliang, a doctor who had warned about a strange new viral outbreak only to be threatened by the police and accused of peddling rumors, had become one of its victims. Grief and fury coursed through social media. To people at home and abroad, Dr. Lis death showed the terrible cost of the Chinese governments instinct to suppress inconvenient information.

Yet Chinas censors decided to double down. Warning of the unprecedented challenge Dr. Lis death posed and the butterfly effect it might set off, officials got to work suppressing the inconvenient news and reclaiming the narrative, according to confidential directives sent to local propaganda workers and news outlets.

They ordered news websites not to issue push notifications alerting readers to his death. They told social platforms to gradually remove his name from trending topics pages. And they activated legions of fake online commenters to flood social sites with distracting chatter, stressing the need for discretion: As commenters fight to guide public opinion, they must conceal their identity, avoid crude patriotism and sarcastic praise, and be sleek and silent in achieving results.

The orders were among thousands of secret government directives and other documents that were reviewed by The New York Times and ProPublica. They lay bare in extraordinary detail the systems that helped the Chinese authorities shape online opinion during the pandemic.

Though China makes no secret of its belief in rigid internet controls, the documents convey just how much behind-the-scenes effort is involved in maintaining a tight grip on online discourse to enforce the Communist Partys consensus: an enormous bureaucracy, armies of people, specialized technology , the constant monitoring and, presumably, lots of money.

EUROPE ROUNDUP

As President Emmanuel Macron of France entered his third day in isolation after being infected with the coronavirus, his doctor said on Saturday that he was in stable health condition compared to Friday.

He is still presenting the same symptoms of the Covid-19 illness (fatigue, coughing, aches) which do not prevent him from performing his duties, Dr. Jean-Christophe Perrochon said in a statement, adding that regular clinical examinations have proved to be reassuring.

On Friday, a day after the positive results of his coronavirus test were announced, Mr. Macron released a self-made video in which he promised to report daily on the evolution of the disease an event and a commitment that marked a departure from Frances tradition of secrecy around the health of its presidents.

Although it is still unclear how Mr. Macron contracted the virus, Frances health minister, Olivier Vran, said on Thursday that he had probably not been infected at the presidential lyse Palace but possibly at a European Council four or five days ago in Brussels during a dinner with other heads of state.

On Friday, Prime Minister Igor Matovic of Slovakia was reported to have tested positive for the virus. Mr. Matovic attended the same European Council meeting last week.

Speaking of the general situation in France, where the number of new daily cases have recently rebounded, Mr. Macron warned on Friday: We have to be vigilant as the virus is gaining in strength again.

France exited a lockdown imposed to fight back the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic only days ago. But the country is already grappling with a rebound in infections.

The evolution of the pandemic is worrisome, said Jrome Salomon, a top official at Frances health ministry, adding that the upcoming Christmas break could prove a high-risk period.

The number of new daily Covid-19 cases, which had fallen below 10,000 in late November thanks to lockdown restrictions, has picked up again and reached an average 13,000 cases per day over the past seven days.

See the article here:

Virus Overwhelms U.S. and Europe Even as Vaccines Roll Out - The New York Times