Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose about 4% on Tuesday to touch highs not seen since March as a third promising coronavirus vaccine raised hope for fuel- demand recovery and U.S. President-elect Joe Biden began his transition to the White House.

FILE PHOTO: The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County, Texas, U.S., November 22, 2019. REUTERS/Angus Mordant

Brent crude settled at $47.86 a barrel, gaining $1.80, or 3.9%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $44.91 a barrel, rising $1.85 or 4.3%.

Both benchmarks ended at their highest close since March 5.

AstraZeneca on Monday said its COVID-19 vaccine was 70% effective in trials and could be up to 90% effective, giving the fight against the pandemic another potential vaccine after positive results from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

However, the vaccine will not be readily available for several months, meaning people will likely restrict travel and other activities through next year to try to slow the spread of the disease.

The petroleum complex is the vaccine trade, said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. Until we can see the other side of the pandemic, the market is going to be mired in slack demand that is going to keep the overhang extensive.

The coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the collapse of an OPEC-led output pact, sent prices crashing in March.

After the collapse of that output pact led to a brief Saudi Arabia-Russia price war, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies agreed a new deal on record production cuts to support prices.

The group known as OPEC+ is expected to roll over those cuts into 2021 after meeting Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, following technical talks this week.

In addition, the administration of President Donald Trump, a Republican, gave the Democratic president-elect access to resources that will enable him to take over in January after delaying for weeks despite Trumps loss in the Nov. 3 election.

Bidens early selection of top advisers helped buoy crude futures and equities, which oil often follows.

Oil prices pared gains slightly in post-settlement trade after the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported U.S. crude inventories rose by 3.8 million barrels in the week to Nov. 20 to about 490 million barrels, compared with analysts expectations in a Reuters poll for a build of 127,000 barrels. [EIA/S]

Official U.S. government crude stocks data will be released on Wednesday.

Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York; Additional reporting by Alex Lawler and Jessica Jaganathan in London; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Matthew Lewis

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Oil hits highest since March on vaccine and Biden transition - Reuters

Health care workers will be the first people in Texas to receive a COVID-19 vaccine once one receives emergency approval from the U.S. government, and on Monday a state panel of vaccine experts and politicians revealed which workers in the health field will receive top priority.

The first tier recipients, according to the panels new guidelines, include:

No COVID-19 vaccine candidate has received an endorsement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, though several pharmaceutical companies have said they intend to seek approval for vaccines that showed promising results in widespread clinical trials. State officials anticipate that a vaccine could be approved before years end but say that supplies will be severely limited for at least a few months.

In their Monday announcement, state officials described an initial phase of distribution, known as phase 1A, that will focus on the health care workforce.

If there are enough doses to go around, a second tier of health care workers will also be eligible to be vaccinated, including:

Early estimates from the Texas Department of State Health Services found there are more than 5 million people who are vulnerable or work in front-line jobs that increase their exposure risk. That includes more than 3.9 million people who are 65 or older, more than 638,000 health care personnel, more than 327,000 acute care hospital employees, more than 137,000 nursing home residents and more than 66,000 emergency medical workers.

The states adult population also includes more than 9.4 million Texans with underlying medical conditions that could increase their risk for severe illness associated with COVID-19.

Protecting health care workers is essential to keeping the health care system intact and able to care for COVID-19 and other patients, so phase 1A of vaccine distribution, when the vaccine supply is most limited, will focus on making vaccine available to health care workers, the expert panel wrote.

Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news release that the state will not mandate that Texans receive a coronavirus vaccine, and that the states distribution effort will be data-driven to reflect the states geographic diversity.

"This foundation for the allocation process will help us mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, protect the most vulnerable Texans, and safeguard crucial state resources," Abbott said.

The governor said the states expert panel would later make additional recommendations about how and when to roll out a vaccine to other critical groups.

In most other respects, the distribution process is being dictated and paid for by the federal government, which has said the vaccine will be free to vulnerable people who cant afford it and that providers will be able to bill health insurers for immunizing covered patients. The Trump administration has partnered with pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens to offer the vaccine to nursing home residents and workers and, later, the general public, once supplies become more available.

Pfizer, its German partner BioNTech and Moderna, makers of the two vaccine candidates that are furthest along in development, have predicted that they could be able to produce enough vaccine doses for some 20 to 30 million Americans a fraction of the U.S. population before the end of the year.

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In Texas, these health workers will be first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine - The Texas Tribune

Artist illustration of adenovirus used in a COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca and University of Oxford

By Jon Cohen, John TravisNov. 23, 2020 , 8:10 AM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

A third COVID-19 vaccine candidate has convincing evidence that it works, and it may be easier to distribute and cheaper than the two other vaccines already shown to protect people. Developed by the company AstraZeneca in partnership with the University of Oxford, the vaccine had an average efficacy of 70% in preventing the disease, the developers announce today in press releases. In one dosing scheme, its efficacy was 90%, according to results from the interim analysis of clinical trial data.

AstraZeneca says about 3 billion doses of the vaccine could be ready in 2021. Whereas the apparently powerful COVID-19 vaccines recently announced by Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech collaboration rely on a snippet of messenger RNA coding for the spike surface protein of SARS-CoV-2, the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine stimulates immunity by using a crippled chimpanzee adenovirus as a vector to deliver the gene for spike. (A Russian team has also presented evidence its vaccine works, but noted too few COVID-19 cases at the time to persuade many outside scientists.)

The AstraZeneca/Oxford collaboration is following more than 23,000 people vaccinated in the United Kingdom and Brazil. It reported atotal of 131 COVID-19 cases in two groups: 8895 people given two full doses 1 month apart, and 2741 people who received a half dose first, followed by the full dose. The first scheme had only 62% efficacy, a clinical trial measurement that may not translate exactly to the real world. But in the second one, efficacy jumped to 90%. The collaboration did not report the breakdown of cases between people in the vaccine arm of the trial and the control group.Nor did it provide any data on COVID-19 protection among the elderly or various ethnicities.

Peter Piot, head of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, says he was very pleased to see these results, especially given the encouraging news that the half-dose scheme worked best, meaning more people could receive the vaccine while it remains in short supply for the next several months. But he noted that none of the COVID-19 efficacy results reported to date has offered much data. It is frustrating that all these announcements are by press release, and we cant review actual data, Piot says. Without knowing how the 131 cases divide up between the different vaccine regimens and people in the control group (who either received a meningococcal vaccine or a placebo), researchers cannot calculate what is known as the confidence interval around the reported efficacy. We desperately need total transparency about trials and data, Piot says.

Even if people who receive the COVID-19 vaccine become infected by SARS-CoV-2, the shots may protect them from serious symptoms. There were no hospitalizations or severe cases of COVID-19 in vaccinated participants, AstraZeneca and Oxford reported. They also said vaccinated people had fewer asymptomatic infections, which suggests they were less likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others.

No serious safety issues have emerged so far in the efficacy trials, AstraZeneca says. The company now plans to file for emergency use of the vaccine with the United Kingdom and other countries regulatory bodies. Other efficacy trials of the vaccine that involve 60,000 participants are underway in the United States, Kenya, Japan, and India.

The company says the vaccine,which only requires standard refrigeration, may cost about $3 to $4 per dose. Moderna, in contrast, may charge $25 or more per dose, according to statements from its CEO. Its vaccine and the one from Pfizer/BioNTech both require freezers for storage and transport to prevent the RNA and the lipid particle that holds it from degrading.

These results suggest it is highly effective in protecting serious illness and it may reduce transmission, Charlie Weller, head of vaccines at the Wellcome Trust, said in a statement. It is based on an established vaccine technology, which does not require the challenging cold-chains and should therefore ease deployment and global access. As with all interim results we have seen, it is critically important that the trial is completed and regulators can now independently and rigorously assess the data.

Adrian Hill, who led the Oxford team that developed the vaccine, says there are lots of theoriesbut little evidenceto explain why the half-dose priming shot worked best. He says: Perhaps the most likelyand measurable explanation is that people develop an immune response against the chimpanzee virus vector that blunts the booster shots impact. A half dose in the beginning in theory would trigger a milder response against the vector.

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Another COVID-19 vaccine success? Candidate may prevent further coronavirus transmission, too - Science Magazine

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reportsas of 10:00 a.m., November 23, 2020, there have been 1,033,510 total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 41,114 total cases and 667 deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 66-yearold female from Kanawha County, a 71-year old female from Kanawha County, a 79-yearold male from Berkeley County, a 75-year old male from Wyoming County, and a 72-yearold male from Summers County.

On this NationalPublic Health Thank You Day, we are gratefulfor our healthcare professionals, support staff and all who continue to doeverything in their power to combat COVID-19, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHRCabinet Secretary. Our sincere sympathies are extended to these families.

CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour(355), Berkeley (2,727), Boone (585), Braxton (99), Brooke (543), Cabell(2,575), Calhoun (57), Clay (104), Doddridge (109), Fayette (1056), Gilmer(186), Grant (291), Greenbrier (396), Hampshire (277), Hancock (528), Hardy(203), Harrison (1,096), Jackson (666), Jefferson (1,181), Kanawha (5,235),Lewis (219), Lincoln (387), Logan (997), Marion (732), Marshall (1,047), Mason(349), McDowell (573), Mercer (1,227), Mineral (1,009), Mingo (926), Monongalia(3,058), Monroe (330), Morgan (234), Nicholas (303), Ohio (1,329), Pendleton(97), Pleasants (73), Pocahontas (102), Preston (472), Putnam (1,675), Raleigh(1,415), Randolph (629), Ritchie (128), Roane (148), Summers (258), Taylor(266), Tucker (105), Tyler (126), Upshur (444), Wayne (915), Webster (52),Wetzel (374), Wirt (90), Wood (2,141), Wyoming (615).

Please note that delaysmay be experienced with the reporting of information from the local healthdepartment to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local healthdepartment level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may notbe a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in questionmay have crossed the state border to be tested.

Please visit the dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

Free COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Cabell,Grant, Jackson, Jefferson, Lincoln, Logan, Marshall, Mason, Mingo, Morgan, Ohio,Putnam, Taylor, Wayne, Wirt, Wood, and Wyoming counties.

BarbourCounty

8:00 AM 12:00 PM, Myers Clinic, 3 Health Care Drive, Philippi, WV

12:00 PM 4:00 PM, Belington Clinic, 25250, Belington, WV

1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue,Belington, WV

BerkeleyCounty

12:00 PM 4:00 PM, Hedgesville High School, 109 Ridge Road N., Hedgesville,WV

4:30 PM 8:00 PM, Dorothy McCormack Building, 2000 Foundation Way,Martinsburg, WV

BooneCounty

2:00 PM 6:00 PM, Boone County Health Department, 213 Kenmore Drive,Danville, WV

CabellCounty

9:00 AM 2:00 PM, Cabell-Huntington Health Department, 703 Seventh Avenue,Huntington, WV

GrantCounty

10:00 AM 3:30 PM, Petersburg Elementary School, 333 Rig Street, Petersburg,WV

JacksonCounty

9:00 AM 1:00 PM, Jackson County Health Department, 504 Church StreetSouth, Ripley, WV

JeffersonCounty

9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Shepherd University, 164 University Drive,Shepherdstown, WV

12:30 PM 3:30 PM, Jefferson County Health Department, 1948Wiltshire Road, Kearneysville, WV

4:30 PM 6:30 PM, Washington High School, 300 Washington PatriotDrive, Charles Town, WV

LincolnCounty

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Lincoln County Health Department, 8008 Court Avenue,Hamlin, WV

11:00 AM 3:00 PM, Duval Volunteer Fire Department, 5273 Straight ForkRoad, Griffithsville, WV

LoganCounty

3:00 PM 7:00 PM, Town of Man Fire Department,Administration Building, 110 North Bridge Street, Man, WV

Marshall County

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Marshall County HealthDepartment, 513 6th Street, Moundsville, WV

Mason County

10:00 AM 12:00 PM, Point Pleasant High School,Scenic Drive, Point Pleasant, WV

2:00 PM 4:00 PM, Leon Town Hall, Main Street,Leon, WV

Mingo County

9:00 AM 12:00 PM, Mount Hope Freewill BaptistCollege, Old County Road, Dingess, WV

10:00 AM 3:00 PM, Hurley Drug Company, 25661,Williamson, WV (by appointment; call 304-235-3535)

1:30 PM 5:00 PM, Chattaroy Volunteer FireDepartment, 1 Firefighter Lane, Williamson, WV

Morgan County

12:00 PM 7:00 PM, Warm Springs Middle School, 271Warm Springs Way, Berkeley Springs, WV

OhioCounty

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Valley Grove Volunteer FireDepartment, 355 Fire House Lane, Valley Grove, WV

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Warwood Fire Station 9, 1301Richland Avenue, Wheeling, WV

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Wheeling Island Fire DepartmentStation 5, 11 North Wabash Street, Wheeling, WV

PutnamCounty

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Hurricane First Church of the Nazarene, 358 US 60, Hurricane,WV

Taylor County

12:00 PM 2:00 PM, First Baptist Church of Grafton,2034 Webster Pike US Route 119 South, Grafton, WV

Wayne County

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Wayne County Health Department,217 Kenova Avenue, Wayne, WV

Wirt County

12:00 PM 3:00 PM, Wirt County Primary Center, 438E. Schoolview Street, Elizabeth, WV

Wood County

11:00 AM 3:00 PM, Vienna Recreation Center, 510 33rdStreet, Vienna, WV

Wyoming County

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Old Board of Education, 19 Park Street,Pineville, WV

Please visit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx for more testing locations including the new locator map. Newsites are added daily.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 11-23-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

The first shipment of a COVID-19 vaccine could be arriving in Alaska in just a few weeks, state health officials say.

The early batches of vaccine will be prioritized for essential workers in health care, assisted living and emergency medical settings, officials said Monday. Vaccines will be in limited quantity initially, and probably wont be available to the general public until around March. The state is still working on plans to prioritize vaccine supplies once theyre more broadly available.

The mid-December timeline for vaccines is based on new announcements made by two drug companies Pfizer and Moderna who say their vaccines are more than 90 percent effective against COVID-19, a stunningly high effective rate for vaccines developed in record time, health officials say.

A third vaccine from an England-based pharmaceutical company called AstraZeneca announced early Monday that its vaccine was also up to 90% effective.

The high efficacy rates of these vaccines is such a triumph, said Joe McLaughlin, a state epidemiologist. For comparison, influenza vaccine effectiveness typically range from between 40 and 60%, he said.

Moderna has said it intends to submit its own application for emergency authorization use within weeks, and AstraZeneca also said it planned to apply for early approval as soon as possible.

With these final bars left to clear, questions abound about who will get access to the vaccine and when, how safe it is, and how distribution could work in Alaska, a state with unique geographic challenges and limited health care access.

Heres what we know so far about Alaskas plans.

The state has not definitively decided a timetable for distributing the vaccine, but it will be done in phases, with front-line health care workers being prioritized for the first doses, said Tessa Walker Linderman, the co-lead with Alaska COVID Vaccine Task Force, during the Monday briefing.

Based on the latest timeline of meetings scheduled by federal agencies, the very soonest the Pfizer vaccine could be shipped is Dec. 10, with Moderna likely about a week behind, said Dr. Anne Zink, the states chief medical officer, on the same call.

The next phase could include those who are high-risk or critical-infrastructure workers, while the general public likely wont have access to a vaccine until March or April, she estimated.

Pregnant women and children, however, were not included in any of the trials, so theyll have to wait even longer to get access to a vaccine.

Front-line health care workers are being defined as critical hospital workers, frontline EMS staff, and long-term care facilities staff, Walker Linderman said.

The state does not know how much vaccine it will be receiving, and officials are currently planning for three different scenarios: one in which the state initially receives less than 5,000 doses; one around 10,000 doses; and one around 20,000.

We have not been provided any specific numbers, but these are our three potential scenarios that we are planning on working through, she said during a call with potential vaccine providers last week.

Vaccine distribution has always been a logistical challenge in a state where many communities are accessible only by plane, boat or snowmobile.

A tight timeline for distribution especially in the case of Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, and can then only be refrigerated for five days after its thawed complicates things further, officials say.

There are very few freezers in Alaska and across the country that have that capacity, said Joe McLaughlin, an epidemiologist with the state health department. And so it makes a logistically a little more difficult how to get that vaccine out to more rural areas, he explained.

Fortunately, the Moderna vaccine has a bit easier-to-achieve temperature range, he said; more in the range of minus 20.

The AstraZeneca vaccine doesnt have to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures at all.

State health officials said one of their main priorities is making sure rural Alaskans have equal and equitable access to a vaccine.

This is a highly talked about conversation right now, Zink said. We know that rural health outcomes are generally worse.

On both a federal and state level, conversations about equitable access to vaccine distribution are being had, she said.

A team of 40 people including state and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium representatives are working around the clock on plans to receive, distribute and administer the vaccine, Walker Linderman said.

Alaska has not yet decided which vaccine it will receive, but that will depend on which is ultimately determined to be safest and most effective, and which is logistically easiest for distribution in the state, McLaughlin said.

They also might see differential effectiveness of these vaccines by sub-populations for example, one might work better on older adults or those who are higher-risk. That will influence their decision, too.

Dr. Liz Ohlsen, a physician with the state health department, said on a call late last week that although the development of a COVID-19 vaccine has moved much more quickly than is typical, neither drug companies have skipped any steps for their clinical trials.

There are a couple reason for the sped-up timeline, none of which involve safety or efficacy compromises, Ohlsen said.

Labs all around the world dropped everything they were working on and switched to this, she said. So theres been a lot of information sharing in ways that weve never seen before.

Both drug companies have now completed their phase three clinical trials, she said. Tens of thousands of people have now been tested, with scientists looking closely at how safe they are and how well they work.

Ohlsen said people should be aware that according to the data published so far on the two vaccines, it appears that both can cause mild side effects within the first few days.

So these are things like fatigue, headache, joint pain and chills, she said. The second dose usually provokes more of an immune response, she said, which is why those side effects are most substantial then.

These symptoms simply show that your body is mounting a response, and are not a sign that the vaccine is hurting you, she said.

Still, its important that people know beforehand that it would not be unexpected side effects to have these adverse effects in the first one to three days of getting the vaccine, she said.

More will be known once all data from the clinical trials becomes publicly available, she said.

There should be no cost for patients receiving a vaccine, said Walker Linderman. However, health care providers will likely be able to bill insurance for an administration fee.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also said that cost will not be an obstacle to getting the vaccine, and that supplies will be distributed by the federal government at no cost to enrolled COVID-19 vaccination providers.

Despite the hurdles that remain, Alaska officials say the news of a vaccine on the horizon is reason to feel hopeful.

Were incredibly excited by the opportunity for possible vaccination in the near future, said Zink.

Still, she reminded Alaskans that a vaccine is not a magic cure, and Alaskans still need to be following all public health guidelines right now to help control the spread. There still record amounts of virus circulating in the state, she said. The effects of the vaccine will not be felt immediately.

I kind of think of it like the sun, she said. Alaskans are used to dark winter, and were also used to the fact that Dec. 22nd doesnt feel much lighter than the 21st. And I think the vaccine is going to feel the same way.

First, you wont notice it, she said. By February, it will feel like somethings changing.

And by summer solstice, its going to be like, the sun is out, and it is different than its been before, she said.

ADN reporter Zaz Hollander contributed to this story.

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The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine could be distributed nationwide in just a few weeks. Here's what we know so far about Alaska's plans. -...

Florida is preparing to receive two coronavirus vaccines that could arrive in the state as soon as three weeks from now, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday on Twitter.

He said the state has identified five Florida hospitals, including Tampa General, that have the ability to store and distribute millions of doses manufactured by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna, possibly by the end of December.

Both companies have reported 95 percent effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccines. DeSantis said theyll be shipped across the country within 24 hours of approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which he expects to happen in three to six weeks.

Florida is ready with millions of syringes, needles and alcohol swabs to be used to distribute the medicines, the governor said. The state also is working to get vaccines shipped to CVS and Walgreens pharmacies, which will work with about 2,000 long-term care facilities to distribute the drugs to residents.

DeSantis also announced a new antibody treatment available to coronavirus patients with mild to moderate symptoms. The first dose was administered Wednesday at Tampa General, the hospital said. Its had great success in clinical trials, reducing the rate of hospitalization for those patients by 70 percent, the governor said.

During the treatment, patients are intravenously given proteins called monoclonal antibodies that neutralize the virus and stop it from spreading. They block a protein in the virus before it can enter human cells and cause illness, according to Tampa General.

Speaking about the vaccines, DeSantis made a point of saying no one would be forced to take them. But he added: I do, though, believe that these breakthroughs represent probably the greatest rays of hope that we have seen since the pandemic began. They offer the prospect of saving thousands and thousands of lives, and could potentially bring this pandemic to an end.

Florida on Thursday reported more than 9,000 new cases and 81 additional deaths from the coronavirus, part of a weeks-long surge in infections across the nation, including in the Tampa Bay region.

Along with Tampa General, four other hospitals will receive vaccines: AdventHealth Orlando, UF Health Jacksonville, Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

Tampa General released a recorded internal interview with Dr. Seetha Lakshmi, an infectious disease attending physician and associate epidemiologist at the hospital, and a professor at the University of South Florida medical school.

She said vaccines are expected to arrive at Tampa General in the next few weeks, though she doesnt know exactly when or how many there will be. Lakshmi and others from the hospital had a call with Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees late Thursday afternoon, but the state did not offer details on either of those points, said hospital spokesperson Philip Buck.

Frontline health care workers who are at risk for contracting COVID-19 because of their job will be the first to receive the vaccine, Lakshmi said. She did not say which groups it would be available to next.

Similarly, AdventHealth Orlando said in a statement that many details will be worked out in the weeks and months ahead.

During a morning briefing presented online, Dr. Tim Hendrix, medical director for AdventHealths urgent care services, said much is still unknown, including who will receive the vaccine first. He did say, however, that it will be several weeks to months before immunization is available to the general public.

This is exciting, Hendrix said. But it is also a lot of work. ... There are a lot of unknowns, but we are preparing for those unknowns.

DeSantis stressed that, while news of the vaccine has most of the spotlight, the antibody treatment created by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is just as significant.

The single-dose, infusion-based treatment is provided on an outpatient basis and provides protection to COVID-19 patients who have mild or moderate symptoms to prevent their condition from worsening. It marks a dramatic shift in coronavirus care, Tampa General said in a news release.

Lakshmi explained it like this: The antibodies are like bullets, shooting down the virus so that soldier or immune cells can defeat it.

The state surveyed all its hospitals to determine demand for the treatment, which takes about two hours to undergo. It passed that information to the federal government, which determined how much of the drug to send to each hospital.

About 3,000 doses have arrived in Florida in the last few days, DeSantis said, and hospitals are beginning to administer them. A similar amount will arrive every week for the foreseeable future, he said.

DeSantis said a similar treatment is being developed by Regeneron, another pharmaceutical company. Its pending emergency use authorization by the FDA, which the governor said should come in the relatively near future.

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Coronavirus vaccines to arrive in Florida within weeks, DeSantis says - Tampa Bay Times

It's impossible to tell without a test. Influenza and COVID-19 have such similar symptoms, you may need to get tested to know what's making you miserable.

Body aches, sore throat, fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue and headaches are symptoms shared by the two.

One difference? People with the flu typically feel sickest during the first week of illness. With COVID-19, people may feel the worst during the second or third week, and they may be sicker for a longer period.

Another difference: COVID-19 is more likely than the flu to cause a loss of taste or smell. But not everyone experiences that symptom, so it's not a reliable way to tell the viruses apart.

That leaves testing, which will become more important as flu season ramps up this fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Doctors will need to know test results to determine the best treatment.

It's also possible to be infected with both viruses at the same time, said Dr. Daniel Solomon, an infectious diseases expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Whether you get tested for one or both viruses may depend on how available tests are and which viruses are circulating where you live, he said.

"Right now we are not seeing community transmission of influenza, so widespread testing for the flu is not yet recommended," Solomon said.

Both the flu and coronavirus spread through droplets from the nose and mouth. Both can spread before people know they are sick. The flu has a shorter incubation period meaning after infection it can take one to four days to feel sick compared to the coronavirus, which can take two to 14 days from infection to symptoms.

On average, COVID-19 is more contagious than flu. But many people with COVID-19 don't spread the virus to anyone, while a few people spread it to many others. These "superspreader events" are more common with COVID-19 than flu, Solomon said.

Preventing the flu starts with an annual flu shot tailored to the strains of the flu virus that are circulating. Health officials would like to see record numbers of people get flu shots this year so hospitals aren't overwhelmed with two epidemics at once.

There's no vaccine yet for COVID-19, although several candidates are in the final testing stages.

Precautions against COVID-19 masks, social distancing, hand-washing also slow the spread of the flu, so health officials hope continued vigilance could lessen the severity of this year's flu season.

The AP is answering your questions about the coronavirus in this series. Submit them at: FactCheck@AP.org.

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Who will be first to get coronavirus vaccines? Get your COVID-19 questions answered here - Martinsville Bulletin

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) The Baltimore Ravens, who play the Steelers on Thanksgiving, say multiple members of the organization have tested positive for coronavirus.

On a statement posted to Twitter, the Ravens did not say how many people have tested positive but say those infected are self-quarantining.

The Ravens have started contact tracing and the Under Armour Performance Center will be closed with all team activities conducted virtually.

We will continue to work closely with and follow guidance from the NFL, team doctors and our medical trainers, the teams statement reads.

The undefeated Steelers go against the Ravens at 8:20 p.m. Nov. 26.

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COVID-19 In NFL: Multiple Coronavirus Cases Reported By Baltimore Ravens Ahead Of Thanksgiving Game Against Pittsburgh Steelers - CBS Pittsburgh

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his family are quarantining after three of his children were exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said late Sunday.

Newsom, his wife and four children, ages 4 to 11, all tested negative for the virus on Sunday, spokesman Jesse Melgar said in an emailed statement.

Newsom was notified Friday evening that a California Highway Patrol member who had contact with three of his children later tested positive for the virus, the statement said. The CHP provides security for Newsom and his family. It said Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, did not have contact with the officer.

The Newsoms were not tested until Sunday based on advice from health professionals to improve the accuracy of the test, Melgar said.

The family is quarantining at their home in Sacramento County. They will be tested regularly, Melgar said.

The governors quarantine comes as California experiences a rise in virus cases and as hes imposed a fresh round of restrictions on people and businesses.Los Angeles County on Sundayannounced that bars and restaurants would be restricted to takeout starting Wednesday.

A 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew took effect over the weekend and officials are warning people about getting together with family and friends for Thanksgiving. Newsom, meanwhile, has faced criticismfor attending a dinner partywith a dozen people on Nov. 6 as he was warning people to limit gatherings.

One of Newsoms children was already quarantining after being exposed to a classmate at school, Newsoms office said Friday, though they did not identify which child. The whole family was not quarantining because only the one child had been exposed, the governors spokesman said. It wasnt clear Sunday whether the same child was among the three exposed to the CHP officer.

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Gov. Newsom in quarantine after his children were exposed to the coronavirus - KTLA Los Angeles

Over 150 CEOs have called on President Trump to concede the election and begin the transition process. Susan Walsh/AP hide caption

Over 150 CEOs have called on President Trump to concede the election and begin the transition process.

More than 150 business leaders are calling on President Trump to concede the election, saying the stalled transition is hurting the United States' reputation and impeding efforts to revitalize the pandemic-ravaged economy.

"Every day that an orderly presidential transition process is delayed, our democracy grows weaker in the eyes of our own citizens and the nation's stature on the global stage is diminished," said a statement signed by 164 chief executives that was released Monday.

"There is not a moment to waste in the battle against the pandemic and for the recovery and healing of our nation to begin," the statement added.

CEOs who signed the letter include Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Michel A. Khalaf, president and CEO of MetLife.

Separately, Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group, also called on Trump to concede. Schwarzman has long been one of Trump's biggest financial backers.

"I supported President Trump and the strong economic path he built. Like many in the business community, I am ready to help President-elect Biden and his team as they confront the significant challenges of rebuilding our post-COVID economy," Schwarzman told Axios in a separate statement, adding that it was time for the country to "move on."

The calls for Trump to concede come as the administration has yet to start a formal transition process with President-elect Joe Biden.

Although the economy has rebounded somewhat since the pandemic lockdowns began, the recent resurgence in coronavirus cases has injected a big new note of uncertainty.

"America is being ravaged by a deadly pandemic with enormous social and economic consequences," the letter said. "The attention and energy of public and private sector leaders should be entirely focused on uniting our country to fight the coronavirus, provide aid to those in need, prevent further business disruption and loss of jobs, and invest in our economic recovery and revitalization."

The letter urges the General Services Administration to release funds to jump-start the transition process. The agency's administrator, Emily Murphy, has argued that she cannot do so because of pending lawsuits challenging the vote, although the vast majority of the suits have been tossed out of court.

While the biggest business groups have traditionally supported Republicans, both the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were quick to congratulate Biden the day after the election.

"While we respect the Trump campaign's right to seek recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities where evidence exists and to exhaust legitimate legal remedies, there is no indication that any of these would change the outcome," said a statement from the Business Roundtable, which represents the most powerful CEOs in the country.

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CEOs Call On Trump To Concede And Ensure Smooth Transition - NPR