Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

The poll found 62% of North Dakotans would take a no-cost vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent the coronavirus. Seventeen percent said they would not take that step, while 21% were not sure.

Molly Howell, the immunization program manager for the North Dakota Department of Health, said their goal is to have 70% of eligible residents accept the vaccine, a number she said national experts indicate is needed to achieve herd immunity and prevent ongoing virus transmission.

I think for right now, thats an acceptable amount of people who would be willing to take the vaccine, Howell said, noting that there are lingering questions about the pending vaccines. I think right now, its OK for people to feel a little hesitant.

Dr. Paul Carson, an infectious disease specialist and public health professor at North Dakota State University, was also encouraged by the poll results and said the number of unsure respondents puts the state within reach of the 70% goal.

The poll was commissioned by the North Dakota Newspaper Association in partnership with North Dakota United, the education and public workers union. It surveyed 400 people across the state about various aspects of the pandemic.

Pollsters were gathering responses when news first arrived that drugmakers had developed highly effective vaccines, providing a much-needed hope that the fight against COVID-19 was about to turn a corner.

But inoculating a large amount of the population will take time. Health care workers and those living in long-term care facilities are likely the first in line for a vaccine, with teachers, police and people with underlying health conditions following, Howell said. Members of the general public may have to wait until spring, she said.

Until then, health experts are urging people to take precautions like wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding crowds.

National polls have shown Americans attitudes about taking a vaccine have shifted as the pandemic wears on.

Two-thirds of respondents to a Gallup survey said in July that they would take an FDA-approved, no-cost vaccine, but that number dipped to 50% in September before rising to 58% a month later. People who said they wouldnt get inoculated cited the vaccines hurried development and said they wanted to make sure it was safe.

A draft vaccination plan from the North Dakota Department of Health, dated mid-October, acknowledges that only half of Americans appear to be willing to get vaccinated. It said the process for allocating a vaccine needs to balance expediting vaccination with risks of wastage if people are hesitant to take it.

Nashville-based Coda Ventures, which performed the NDNA online poll, did not question North Dakotans on reasons for their wariness.

Howell said vaccines are going through a rigorous approval process despite the quickened development. She lamented that the issue has been politicized in recent months and urged people to seek out information from credible sources.

The last thing anyone wants is a vaccine that is not safe, is not effective and will hurt confidence that we will routinely use in the United States, Howell said.

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Bring on the vaccine: Two-thirds of North Dakotans would take COVID-19 vaccine, poll says - Grand Forks Herald

Healthcare Doina Chiacu Peter Szekely

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - After a Thanksgiving weekend when the number of people traveling through U.S. airports reached its highest since mid-March, a top government official said on Monday some Americans could begin receiving coronavirus vaccinations before Christmas.

U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar said Pfizer Incs COVID-19 vaccine could be authorized and shipped within days of a Dec. 10 meeting of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration tasked with reviewing trial data and recommending whether it warrants approval. A vaccine from Moderna Inc could follow a week later, he said, after the company announced on Monday that it would apply for U.S. and European emergency authorization.

So we could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into peoples arms before Christmas, Azar said on CBS This Morning.

The federal government will ship the vaccines. State governors will decide how they are distributed within their states.

They will be determining which groups to be prioritized, Azar said, adding that he and Vice President Mike Pence will speak to all the nations governors later on Monday to discuss the vaccines and how to prioritize them for distribution.

The United States has reported more than 4 million new COVID-19 cases so far in November and more than 35,000 coronavirus-related deaths, according to a Reuters tally. Hospitalizations are at a pandemic high and deaths the most in six months.

As the virus rages across the country, overwhelming hospital systems and pushing already exhausted medical staff near a breaking point, U.S. officials pleaded with Americans to avoid travel and limit social gatherings as the nation entered the winter holiday season. Many appear to have disregarded those pleas over the long Thanksgiving weekend as the Transportation Security Administration screened 1.18 million airline passengers on Sunday, the highest since mid-March.

That number is still about 60% lower than the comparable day last year when 2.88 million passengers were screened, the highest ever recorded by the agency.

There almost certainly is going to be an uptick because of what has happened with the travel, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nations top infectious diseases experts, told ABCs This Week program on Sunday.

With the latest wave of the virus spiking across the country and no federal blueprint to combat it, more than 20 states have issued new or revamped restrictions on businesses, schools and social life.

But in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio reversed course on Sunday, announcing that public schools would start to reopen for in-class instruction five days a week for students who want to attend full time. Previously, students were offered a mix of online and in-person instruction.

The schools in the countrys largest system were closed less than two weeks ago after the citywide rate of coronavirus tests coming back positive exceeded a 3% benchmark agreed to by the mayor and the teachers union.

De Blasio said schools would begin to reopen for in-person learning on Dec. 7, starting with elementary schools for students whose parents agree to a weekly testing regimen for the novel coronavirus.

On Monday, the mayor said he hoped to reopen middle school and high school buildings early next year, as the schools system needed time to ramp up its testing program, which will be done weekly instead of monthly.

Weve proven the schools could be extraordinarily safe, and the schools are some of the safest places to be right now in New York City, de Blasio told CNN.

Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Peter Szekely in New York; Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Maria Caspani in New York; Writing by Maria Caspani; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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With vaccines within reach, US braces for post-Thanksgiving coronavirus surge - Reuters

This right now this November, December, January, February looks like its going to be the peak time in terms of transmission of COVID-19, she said. Beyond that, she added, health officials are hopeful that the vaccines will have an impact on the virus spread. I think 2021, especially the second half of 2021, will look much better.

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Philly COVID-19 hospitalizations jump 48%; vaccine wont be required for Pa. school children; N.J. to tighten - The Philadelphia Inquirer

OHSU invites people living in the Portland area to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trial  KATU

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OHSU invites people living in the Portland area to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trial - KATU

As a Black man and a nurse practitioner working at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Long Beach, Walter Perez hears a lot of cringeworthy stuff from his Black patients.

Like how the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines wont be safe because Big Pharma is cutting corners to make more money. Or how the medical establishment wants to use Black people as guinea pigs to test those vaccines. Or how the vaccines could actually prove more harmful than getting COVID-19.

The list goes on.

The only way I can describe it is theres a paranoia, Perez said. A lot of people are just really paranoid about it.

Indeed, across the U.S., only 32% of Black adults say they would definitely or probably take a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Pew Research Center. Another study by the COVID Collaborative and the NAACP found that most Black people dont believe a vaccine will be safe or effective, and dont plan to get it.

In California, its even worse, with fewer than 30% of Black people saying they would probably or definitely get vaccinated the lowest percentage of any racial group surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California, though Latinos werent far behind.

That we are here with Black people, alongside Latinos, still disproportionately dying of COVID-19, and Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca on the verge of rolling out their lifesaving vaccines comes as no surprise to Black people.

Many of us grew up hearing stories as children about how Black men were left to suffer during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and, as adults, have lived out our own stories of fighting through disparities to try to get adequate care.

In my whole life, Ive never had a Black doctor. Im 43 years old. As of last year, only about 2.6% of the nations physicians and 7.3% of students in medical school this year were Black. Because of persistent inequities in education and household income, those numbers havent changed since I was born. Considering the many studies that show Black people tend to have better outcomes when treated by trusted Black doctors and nurses, this is a problem.

All of which is why convincing millions of skeptical Black people to get vaccinated a crucial step toward achieving a herd immunity of about 70% and bringing the pandemic under control wont be as simple as many elected and public health officials would hope.

In the same way that the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis made plain how this country has never truly dealt with its history of systemic racism in policing, the COVID-19 pandemic has made plain the unaddressed history of distrust and systemic racism in the nations healthcare system.

Perez and his fellow Black nurses and doctors understand this better than most. And they rightfully want a reckoning.

Is there mistrust for vaccines and for the healthcare system in Black communities? Yes. But that mistrust is very well earned, said Dr. Tiffani Johnson, an emergency physician in the pediatric ward of UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. So I think that we, as physicians and researchers and healthcare systems, need to take a step back and instead of saying, Why wont Black folks trust us? say, What have we done to earn trust?

::

So far, most plans for the COVID-19 vaccines have focused on the relatively easier issue of access, which is understandable. These are desperate times.

The disease has already killed some 266,000 Americans. Coronavirus cases are multiplying at a terrifying pace, with about 1 in 145 people infected and contagious in Los Angeles County, as of last week. Thanksgiving plans were upended and new shutdown orders and curfews have again thrown small-business owners into chaos.

So, hoping to bring this pandemic to an end sooner rather than later, California is preparing to barrel ahead with mass vaccinations, starting with healthcare workers and other first responders. In L.A., public health officials are working on ways to store and distribute doses once they become available in a few weeks.

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom assured Californians that an equity lens is part of our focus. In other words, ensuring that communities of color have access to the vaccines is a top priority which is the way it should be. But that could backfire because the problem isnt so much access as it is trust.

Dr. Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist and a senior director of policy at the statewide nonprofit Public Health Advocates, describes it as three hot takes that add up to a no-win scenario.

The first option for counties is to roll out the vaccines to everyone at the same time, ignoring the fact that Black, Latino and Indigenous populations are getting COVID-19 at higher rates and are dying of it at younger ages than the rest of the population. That will lead to accusations that theres no equity because youre just giving it to everybody all willy-nilly at the same time.

The second option is to target Black people and roll it out in the neighborhoods that have logged the most cases. But then, Cofer said, people are going to say, Oh, no! Youre not gonna experiment on us like you did with Tuskegee.

The third option is to roll it out specifically to white people living in neighborhoods that havent been hit as hard by COVID-19. But then, Black people will say, So youre going to save yourselves and leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves?

And all three of those hot takes, Cofer added, are absolutely valid and correct.

::

So whats the solution then? I suspect that recommendations from a number of Black doctors who have agreed to vet federal regulators decisions about COVID-19 vaccines will help allay peoples fears. But, in the meantime, so will honesty and humility.

We have to come out and say: Look, vaccines have helped human history. And we want to hopefully get to the place where you feel comfortable taking a vaccine, Cofer said. We recognize some of you are ready tomorrow, and some of you wont be ready for several years. And thats OK.

Eric J. Williams, a past president of the National Black Nurses Assn. and interim associate dean of health sciences at Santa Monica College, said he expects Black nurses and doctors to play an outsize role in persuading other Black people to get vaccinated.

One reason is they will be leading by example, as healthcare workers will be among the first to be vaccinated. Theyll be the real guinea pigs.

Another reason is that nurses, in particular, are used to teaching. Perez, for example, says he turns to facts when patients confront him with conspiracy theories, and uses examples about the importance of vaccines, such as how many Indigenous people wouldve been saved if theyd had access to the smallpox vaccine.

We teach every day when we do interactions with patients and their families and the community, Williams said.

Looking ahead, though, the real solution must be about rebuilding public trust in the nations healthcare system, which is something that Black nurses and doctors have been calling on their white peers to do for decades.

That more than 13 million Americans have been infected with a potentially lethal virus and millions of others of all races would rather take their chances catching it than take a vaccine speaks volumes. Thats not a problem Black doctors and nurses can fix alone, nor should they be asked to.

If you want patients to get vaccinated, we also need to do our part in order to kind of create trustworthiness in the community, Johnson said. I think that there needs to be a call to action for all healthcare providers to think about that.

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The real reasons Black people won't trust COVID-19 vaccines - Los Angeles Times

The demand for testing is coinciding with coronavirus surges across the U.S, but the country isn't keeping up. In many parts of the U.S., lines are long and test results can take days or weeks to come back.

The American Clinical Laboratory Association says it's facing shortages of critical supplies. But what if there was an inexpensive, rapid test you could take at home a few times a week?

Well, epidemiologist Michael Mina says thats possible, and deploying the money and infrastructure for such a test could stop the pandemic by Christmas.

For at-home rapid antigen tests, a person would swab the front of their nose, Mina says. This is unlike the PCR test that uses a long swab called a nasopharyngeal to get deep in the nostril.

The test itself looks similar to a pregnancy test, he says. The nasal swab is placed in a small tube of liquid, he says, then a couple drops from the swab are put onto an encased piece of paper.

If a line on the paper strip appears, the test is positive. If no line shows up, the test is negative, he says.

Yielding a negative rapid test doesnt mean you dont have any trace of the coronavirus in your system, he says. What this test generally means is youre unlikely to be infectious at that point in time.

PCR tests are still considered the gold standard because they are exquisitely sensitive to pick up the genetic material from this virus, potentially even weeks after a person has been infected, he says.

But PCR tests need to be sent away, meaning you could be infected as you await the results. Rapid antigen tests, he says, detect contagion right away, giving you real-time information on whether the coronavirus is live in your body.

The antigen test, these simple paper strip tests, pick up the actual proteins of the virus and those parts will only be there when the person has live, likely contagious virus, he explains.

That way, Mina says you can know within minutes whether to quarantine immediately.

For the at-home tests, extra strips can be added as a backup against false positives. And if youre asymptomatic, the test can still detect if you have enough virus to likely transmit it to others, he says.

Mina argues that rapid antigen tests need to be considered as public health tools instead of medical devices, the category PCR tests are placed in.

Since rapid antigen tests are seen as clinical diagnostic tests by the Food and Drug Administration, at-home rapid testing has been difficult to roll out. Mina says he does want rapid testing to be regulated, but for each coronavirus test to be evaluated for a specific purpose.

What I would like the FDA to do is to create a new pathway to regulate tools like these rapid antigen tests for the use that they should be intended for, [which] in this case is for public health mitigation strategies, he says.

Mina and other Harvard economists calculated the cost of starting a massive country-wide home testing program and determined it would have cost billions. However, they make the case that it would have saved a lot of money because it could have avoided lockdowns and saved lives.

The U.S. government can produce and pay for a full nationwide rapid antigen testing program at a minute fraction (0.05% 0.2%) of the cost that this virus is wreaking on our economy, Mina wrote in TIME.

The at-home system also relies on people to test themselves multiple times a week along with adhering to health safety measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing. Mina believes people would react well to an individualistic approach that meets people where theyre at such as letting folks test themselves in the comfort of their own home compared to the current top-down, more paternalistic approach of COVID-19 testing.

Unlike a mask which has become politicized in many ways, these tests take less than one minute to perform and you do that twice a week, he says. And I believe very deeply that people, even the most ardent non-mask wearers, still recognize that this is a real virus and they don't want to mistakenly give their 80-year-old parent coronavirus.

There has been some concern that folks would let their guard down if they used at-home testing on a regular basis and received consistent negative results. Mina says the same argument that a safety measure would backfire was used when seat belts and pregnancy tests were invented.

Mina perceives the pandemic as a war where businesses need to come together to make at-home testing possible. While it may be expensive, $5 billion is not expensive for a war that's literally cost us trillions, he says.

The tools and innovation to get rapid antigen testing into the homes of millions of Americans exist in the U.S., he says. He advises getting the countrys technology companies on board and using the Defence Production Act to increase the speed of manufacturing tests.

These should not even be questions if we actually consider how many Americans have died and what the economic and social toll has been on all of us, he says.

Karyn Miller-Medzonproduced and edited this interview for broadcast withChris Bentley.Serena McMahonadapted it for the web.

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Cheap At-Home Tests Could End The COVID-19 Pandemic By Christmas, One Researcher Says - Here And Now

NEW YORK The viral pandemic is accelerating a transformation of Americas holiday shopping season.

Few people showed up at the mall this weekend, with millions of pandemic-wary shoppers staying home to shop online.

The result? Overall holiday sales are projected to rise a slight 0.9% in November and December and even that modest gain will be due to an explosion in online shopping, according to the research firm eMarketer. It expects online sales to jump nearly 36%, while sales at physical stores fall 4.7%.

The online rush was on fully display Monday, known as Cyber Monday, a day of sales promoted by retailers back in 2005. Once the final numbers are tallied up, this years Cyber Monday is projected to become the biggest online shopping day in American history.

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U.S. concerned about adequate supplies for vaccine

WASHINGTON A government watchdog agency says most states are concerned they wont have adequate supplies to administer COVID-19 vaccines, which are expected to start becoming available for high-priority groups in the next few weeks.

The congressional Government Accountability Office said in a report Monday that 17 states are greatly or completely concerned about having adequate supplies to administer vaccines, while another 21 states said in an agency survey they were moderately concerned.

The federal governments Operation Warp Speed campaign aims to start shipping vaccines within 24 hours of an emergency use approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But theres concern about the final, local delivery links in getting vaccines finally into peoples arms, sometimes referred to as the last mile in the chain.

Initially vaccines are expected to go to health care workers, with nursing home staff and residents, and essential workers getting the next highest priority.

GAO said senior officials from six states stated they were specifically concerned about the federal governments ability to supply needles given reports of shortages. Three of those states also said they were scrambling to maintain supplies of needles for flu vaccination.

The GAO report did not identify the states.

Yes, you can get COVID twice. Dont be alarmed, scientists say

SAN DIEGO Data from San Diego County suggest that few residents have gotten COVID-19 twice so far, echoing findings from researchers across the globe.

The Union-Tribune asked the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency for the number of people whove tested positive for the coronavirus twice, with their second test at least three months after their first. That cutoff is based on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that an infected person can shed virus for up to three months after they first show symptoms

Fewer than 10 San Diegans met those criteria, according to communications officer Sarah Sweeney.

Thats a tiny fraction of the more than 70,000 people whove tested positive for COVID-19 in the region. And Sweeney cautions that the county isnt certain these are genuine cases of reinfection and not tests picking up remnants of a persons first infection.

To figure that out, researchers would have to sequence viral samples from both tests and compare them. Clear genetic differences between the samples would be a strong sign that someone was infected twice.

Thats what scientists did to identify the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection a man living in Hong Kong who tested positive for the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in late March and again in mid-August.

UC San Diego infectious disease expert Chip Schooley is the editor of the journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases, where the study published. He says its no surprise that researchers are finding instances of COVID-19 reinfection.

We knew this would be the case, Schooley said. Other coronaviruses had the same experience: You develop immunity during a bout of infection, the immunity wanes and then the virus comes back around again and you get infected. And thats whats happening with this coronavirus as well.

Local researchers say thats not necessarily cause for concern.

Notably, the first person with a confirmed COVID-19 reinfection had mild symptoms during his first bout of disease and no symptoms the second time.

Thats reminiscent of a 1990 United Kingdom study in which volunteers were deliberately exposed to a coronavirus that causes the common cold. Most of the participants who were exposed twice still got infected again, but they didnt develop symptoms or shed virus for as long as they did the first time which presumably means they were less infectious.

We dont know whether that can be extrapolated to SARS-CoV-2, but that would be a good scenario, said Alessandro Sette, a researcher at La Jolla Immunology.

Sette and colleagues recently looked at the immune responses of 185 people who recovered from COVID-19. Their study, which has not yet gone through scientific peer review, showed that most of these peoples immune responses were still detectable six to eight months after they got sick.

We dont see any red flags,' Sette said. From what were seeing, its not hard to imagine that the response could last years.

Air travel rises to post-pandemic high despite U.S. warning

U.S. air travelers rose to the most in more than eight months as fliers brushed aside the advice of public health officials to avoid trips around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Passengers at domestic airport checkpoints totaled 1,176,091 on Sunday, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said Monday. Thats the most since March, when the coronavirus pandemic gutted travel demand.

The uptick in airline travel came even as public health officials and state leaders urged people to stay home and limit holiday gatherings to prevent a further surge in covid-19 cases. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, before the holiday said that people should think twice about traveling.

Despite the increase, Sundays passenger total was only 41% of last years level. Before the holiday week, travelers in November had been at about 35% of 2019 levels.

American Airlines Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. had warned before Thanksgiving that bookings were softening with news of growing infections, hospitalizations and deaths due to covid-19.

A Standard & Poors index of major U.S. airlines fell 1.8% at 11:21 a.m., paced by Americans 4.3% drop to $14.33.

Driving was also off last week, with U.S. gasoline demand falling more than 25% compared with year-earlier levels, according to GasBuddy.

Rhode Island hospitals reach COVID-19 capacity

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Rhode Islands hospitals reached their COVID-19 capacity on Monday, the same day the states two-week pause meant to control the rise in new coronavirus cases took effect.

The state pushed an emergency alert to residents cell phones that read: Hospitals at capacity due to COVID. Help the frontline by staying home as much as possible for the next two weeks.

Under the restrictions announced earlier in November by Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo, some businesses will be required to shut down for two weeks, while others are restricted.

Recreational businesses including bowling alleys, theaters, and casinos, as well as indoor sporting facilities and gyms must close. Bars and bar areas in restaurants are also required to close, while restaurants are limited to 33% of indoor capacity. Residents are also asked to close their social circles to only people in their own household.

This will not be easy, but I am pleading with you to take it seriously. Choosing to gather with those outside your household will have ripple effects that will increase the strain on our hospitals and put lives at risk, Raimondo said in a statement.

Raimondo did not rule out another economic shutdown if the pandemic get worse.

Beware of COVID-19 scams as vaccine approaches FDA approval

WASHINGTON The coronavirus vaccine inching toward approval in the U.S. is desperately anticipated by weary Americans longing for a path back to normal life. But criminals are waiting, too, ready to use that desperation to their advantage, federal investigators say.

Homeland Security investigators are working with Pfizer, Moderna and dozens of other drug companies racing to complete and distribute the vaccine and treatments for the virus. The goal: to prepare for the scams that are coming, especially after the mess of criminal activity this year with phony personal protective equipment, false cures and extortion schemes.

Were all very excited about the potential vaccine and treatments, said Steve Francis, assistant director for global trade investigations with Homeland Security Investigations. But I also caution against these criminal organizations and individuals that will try to exploit the American public.

No vaccine has yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has approved the first treatment for COVID-19, the antiviral drug remdesivir. With vaccines and treatments both, it has warned about the potential for fraud.

The FDA is particularly concerned that these deceptive and misleading products might cause Americans to delay or stop appropriate medical treatment, leading to serious and life-threatening harm, the agency said in a recent statement.

The drug companies are to have safeguards and brand-protection features in place to help avoid fraud, but that may not be available until the second generation of vaccine because everything is operated on such an emergency basis, said Karen Gardner, chief marketing officer at SIPCA North America, a company that works as a bridge between the government, businesses and consumers. She said that makes it more important to educate health care providers on what the real thing looks like.

When you have anything in high demand and limited supply, there is going to be fraud, she said. Desperation will drive people around normal channels.

Meanwhile, investigators are learning about how the vaccine will be packaged and getting the message out to field agents, creating a mass database of information from more than 200 companies, so they can be prepared to spot fakes and crack down on dangerous fraud. They are monitoring tens of thousands of false websites and looking for evidence of fake cures sold online.

Earlier this year as cases exploded, hospitals and governments grew short on masks, gloves and other protective gear. Scams grew, too. Tricksters preyed on unwitting citizens to hand over money for goods theyd never receive.

Read the full story here.

Lawmaker learns of positive test while meeting with Trump

HARRISBURG, Pa. A Pennsylvania state senator abruptly left a West Wing meeting with President Trump after being informed he had tested positive for the coronavirus, a person with direct knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano had gone to the White House last Wednesday with like-minded Republican state lawmakers shortly after a four-hour-plus public meeting that Mastriano helped host in Gettysburg maskless to discuss efforts to overturn President-elect Joe Bidens victory in the state.

Trump told Mastriano that White House medical personnel would take care of him, his son and his sons friend, who were also there for the Oval Office meeting and tested positive. The meeting continued after Mastriano and the others left, the person said.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private session because the matter is politically sensitive.

Positive coronavirus cases are surging across the United States and the nations top infectious disease expert said Sunday that the U.S. may see surge upon surge in the coming weeks. The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the United States topped 200,000 for the first time Friday.

Everyone who will be in close proximity to the president must take a rapid test. Trump was himself hospitalized in October after he contracted the virus. Dozens of White House staffers and others close to the president have also tested positive, including the first lady and two of the presidents sons.

All participants in Wednesdays meeting took COVID-19 tests, but the positive results were not announced until they were in the West Wing of the White House, the person said.

The president instantly called the White House doctor in and he took them back to, I guess, the medical place, the person said. The meeting with Trump was to strategize about efforts regarding the election, the person said.

After Mastriano and the others left, the discussion with Trump continued for about a half-hour. Mastriano did not return to the meeting.

Mastriano sought the meeting of the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Policy Committee earlier Wednesday that drew Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, a second Trump lawyer, several witnesses and a crowd of onlookers. Only a few of them were masked.

The committee let Giuliani and others, for several hours, air their beliefs that there had been problems with how the Pennsylvania vote was conducted and counted. All claims were baseless; no evidence was presented to support any of the allegations they made.

Trump even participated, calling from the White House while one of his lawyers held a phone up to a microphone. He reiterated the same unfounded claims of fraud hes been tweeting about for weeks.

Those beliefs have persisted despite Trump losing repeatedly in state and federal courts, including a Philadelphia-based federal appeals courts decision Friday that said the Trump campaigns claims have no merit, and a state Supreme Court decision Saturday that threw out a legal challenge to the election and effort to stop certification of its results.

Mastriano, a conservative from a rural district in central Pennsylvania and outspoken Trump supporter, did not return several messages left Sunday seeking comment.

Republican state Sen. Dave Argall, who chairs the policy committee, declined Sunday in a text message to discuss Mastrianos medical condition and the White House visit.

Ive received some conflicting information that Im trying to resolve, Argall said in the text. Its my understanding a Senate statement later today will help us all to understand this better.

Argall said he would not talk publicly about the matter until I know more.

Senate Republican spokeswoman Kate Flessner declined comment, describing it as a personnel matter.

The person with knowledge of the White House visit said several people rode in a large van from Gettysburg, where the policy committee met in a hotel, to the White House. Mastriano, his son and his sons friend drove in another vehicle.

Its not clear why Mastrianos son and his friend accompanied the state senator to the meeting, which the person said was also attended by Trump and the presidents chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who tested positive in early November.

Mastriano has aggressively opposed policies under the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and keep people safe.

He has led rallies where he advocated to reopen businesses despite the risk of infection and he has repeatedly and sharply denounced Wolfs orders. Mastriano also spoke to a few thousand Trump supporters who gathered outside the Capitol on Nov. 7, hours after Democrat Joe Bidens national win became evident.

New York City to reopen school system

NEW YORK New York City will reopen its school system to in-person learning and increase the number of days a week many children attend class even as the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in the city.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday that some elementary schools and pre-kindergarten programs will resume classes Dec. 7. Others will take longer to reopen their doors. The announcement marks a major policy reversal for the nations largest school system.

It comes just 11 days after de Blasio announced that schools were shutting down because of a rising number of cases. The plan for reopening middle and high schools is still being developed.

Some elementary schools and pre-kindergarten programs will resume classes Dec. 7, a week from Monday, the mayor said. Others will take longer to reopen their doors.

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The Latest: The pandemic is driving everyone to shop from home - The Bethel Citizen

State health officials said Maine could receive the first 12,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as mid-December, offering a glimmer of hope amid a surge of infections that included three more deaths and 249 new cases on Monday.

Although the arrival of a vaccine would be good news, the rollout of doses for widespread access is expected to take months and will be a huge logistical challenge for all states, including Maine.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing that preliminary numbers that could easily change show the federal government could ship 12,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Maine. The vaccine will require storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), but Maine has recently expanded its ultra-cold storage capacity, Shah said.

Because the Pfizer vaccine requires two doses taken three weeks apart, an initial shipment of 12,000 doses would vaccinate 6,000 people. At the very front of the line will be health care workers most at risk of contracting COVID-19, Shah said.

Maine has 22,280 health care providers in long-term care facilities, 35,670 inpatient health care providers, and 28,470 outpatient and home health care providers, according to the states draft vaccination plan for COVID-19.

Shah said its unclear whether Maine would get regular weekly shipments of doses in subsequent weeks or large amounts all at once, but some of the doses will go to the state while other shipments will go directly to hospitals. Shah said the drug companies are currently manufacturing the doses in anticipation of regulatory approval in mid-December, so that distribution can begin immediately.

Those first doses will be focused on health care providers, Shah said. Our focus is on making sure we can provide that Pfizer vaccine to health care facilities that have ultra-cold storage units in place so that they can start organizing to deliver the vaccine. Once we receive word, they will have to shift those plans into action.

The new cases and deaths reported Monday continued a trend of higher case counts.

The seven-day daily average of new cases stood at 174.1, compared to 205.4 a week ago and 65.7 a month ago.

Overall, there have been 11,757 COVID-19 cases in Maine and 194 deaths.

As cases increase nationally, officials with Moderna, which is developing a second COVID-19 vaccine candidate, said on Monday that they were applying to the Food and Drug Administration for approval for emergency use of the vaccine.

It was the first time I allowed myself to cry, Dr. Tal Zaks, Modernas chief medical officer, told CNN on Monday. We have a full expectation to change the course of this pandemic.

Pfizer applied in November and will go before a panel of FDA scientists on Dec. 10, while Moderna is expected to go before the same panel on Dec. 17.

If both are approved, distribution of the Pfizer vaccine could begin around Dec. 15, with Moderna starting on Dec. 21, officials for the companies have said.

Shah said he doesnt yet know how many doses would be included in the initial shipment of the Moderna vaccine.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have effectiveness rates of about 95 percent, according to late-stage clinical trials.

Full rollouts of the vaccines are expected to extend into the spring or summer of 2021, with public health officials racing the clock against a worsening pandemic thats filling up hospitals across the country. Maine is doing relatively well compared to most other states, but only because the pandemic is surging less in Maine than in most states. Maines seven-day average of daily cases was 12.3 per 100,000 residents, the third-lowest in the nation, according to the Harvard Global Health Institute. Hawaii had the lowest virus prevalence in the nation at 6.9.

Forty-five states had virus prevalence rates at least double Maines, and Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota had rates approaching 10 times Maines or higher.

As conditions worsen, more people seek care in hospitals.

Several Maine hospitals last week reported record numbers of inpatients with COVID-19, many of them in central and eastern Maine. On Monday, 139 people were in Maine hospitals for COVID-19, with 51 in intensive care and 18 on ventilators.

Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor treated an average of 22.2 COVID-19 inpatients each day for the six days ending Wednesday the highest COVID-19 patient load in the state. MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston also broke their respective records for COVID-19 patients.

York County also has seen a surge in hospitalizations, with Maine Health Care Medical Center in Biddeford and York Hospital reporting record highs.

The deaths on Monday were three women in their 80s, two from Penobscot County and one from Somerset County. An outbreak at the Island Nursing Home in Deer Isle has expanded to 44 people, including 25 cases among residents, 10 among nurses and nine among other employees. Other outbreaks include seven cases at Auburn Public Works, eight cases at Dexter EMS and three cases at Westbrook High School.

The University of Maine System reported seven new cases on Monday, bringing the cumulative total to 121 since the academic year began.

Also, Jeanne Lambrew, Maines health and human services commissioner, said the state is reviewing whether to continue a 9 p.m. curfew for the states hospitality industry, including restaurants, casinos, movie theaters and tasting rooms. The curfew began Nov. 20 and is set to expire Sunday.

Weve heard from different municipalities about closing times for restaurants and similar establishments and it seems to have gone well. We will assess whether we think that made a difference (in curtailing transmission), Lambrew said.

To help businesses hit hard by pandemic, the Mills administration announced on Monday that $40 million in federal CARES Act money will be distributed to the hospitality industry on a grant basis starting in December.

Lambrew also said that the state is discussing whether Maines winter high school sports, such as basketball, ice hockey, swimming and indoor track, can begin practices Dec. 14 or whether the season should be delayed. Lambrew noted that other states, including New Jersey and Connecticut, have pushed off winter sports until January as virus cases worsen.

Lambrew previously said that state decisions about high school sports also will apply to community sports, such as AAU basketball, and youth and club ice hockey.

Staff in the office of independent Sen. Angus King of Maine said an announcement is expected Tuesday about a bill that would assist home health care workers during the pandemic.

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Maine looks ahead to 12000 doses of Pfizer vaccine within weeks - Press Herald

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

BUTLER (KDKA) The Pennsylvania Department of Health will provide free COVID-19 testing for five days beginning on Wednesday, December 2.

Testing will be available from 9:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. at Michelle Krill Field in Butler.

The site will be both a drive-thru and walk-in testing clinic and can perform up to 450 tests per day.

Tests will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis and will be free to all patients. Patients are required to be three-years-old and older and are not required to be showing symptoms of COVID-19.

No appointments will be necessary and patients are encouraged to bring a photo ID or their insurance card.

Patients will be required to complete registration on-site and results will be available 2-7 days after testing.

Read more from the original source:

COVID-19 In Pennsylvania: Pa. Dept. Of Health Providing Free Testing In Butler County - CBS Pittsburgh

Citing national health experts who've expressed concerns over the possibility of a post-Thanksgiving surge in coronavirus cases, Illinois' Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stern warning to residents Monday, saying the state's health care system could become overwhelmed if Illinoisans aren't careful.

Despite guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as pleas from health officials to celebrate virtually,large crowds and lines formed for several days at OHare International Airportas travelers departed Chicago for the holiday weekend.

At his daily coronavirus briefing Monday, Pritzker said no region will be downgraded from Illinois' Tier 3 mitigations in the upcoming weeks, even if they meet the threshold to move to other levels.

Pritzker said he came to the decision after discussions with local health experts and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who told the governor "this is no time to pull back on mitigations," with the nation gearing up for another potential surge.

While statewide metrics have offered a "hint of potential progress," Illinois officials said, the number of hospitalized patients fighting COVID-19 is 23% higher than the state's spring peak.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, has said the first sign of an additional surge will be an increase in cases one to two weeks after Thanksgiving.

Ezike urged anyone who believes they may be exposed during the holiday to wait seven days before getting tested, unless they are experiencing symptoms.

Pritzker added he hopes Illinois can fend off the surge in the next few weeks in order to get to a healthier holiday time in the second half of December.

"We are still very much in a precarious place, and we have got to take the time toevaluate any Thanksgiving effect before we make any premature adjustments," he said.

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Post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 Surge Could Overwhelm Illinois' Health Care System - NBC Chicago