Category: Corona Virus

Biden slams Trump for 'knowingly' lying on COVID

McEnany: Trump 'never lied' to the public on COVID

Trump bemoans virus restrictions in North Carolina

University of Tennessee relocating Massey Hall residents to make room for COVID-19 self-isolation cases

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Knox County Health Dept.: Numbers reflect new timeframe for inactive cases

Clinton High School cancels next 2 weeks of games due to virus

UT chancellor: Fraternities trying to avoid COVID-19 precautions

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Coronavirus Tennessee: 3,188 new cases of COVID-19 reported along with 69 new deaths in the state - WATE 6 On Your Side

Mel and Sue Awes spent the last weeks of their lives in a shared double room in Fairview Southdale Hospital's ICU sedated and on ventilators fighting COVID-19 complications.

The Edina couple began dating when they were students at the University of Minnesota. In six decades of marriage, they had done everything together: moved around the country, raised five children, built careers in sales, amassed a passel of friends.

Breaking with protocol, the hospital staff drew back the divider curtain and placed the couple's beds feet-to-feet, a few yards apart.

In the face of an inhumane disease, it was a humanizing gesture, one that brought their loved ones great comfort. "Mom and Dad were Frick and Frack, they were always together," their son Ben Awes of St. Paul explained.

"We were relatively untouched," he said of the period before the virus infected his parents, who passed it to his brother's household. "And then it hit our family with a fury."

As COVID-19 has ravaged the elderly, couples who have spent nearly a lifetime together are dying together days, sometimes hours apart. For some families left behind, the unexpected double losses are even more painful because a vaccine that could have prevented many of these deaths was almost within reach.

But amid the heartache, they sometimes find comfort.

"It's a mixed bag of grief and gratitude," said Carla Smith of Independence, Minn. Her parents died Dec. 6, just seven hours apart in the same nursing home room. "Neither of them had to grieve and live without the other."

Mary Agnes and Jim Smith moved out of their Independence home into a long-term care facility as their health issues required more care. Although they slept in separate rooms, the couple who had been together for 65 years were almost inseparable during the day, sharing meals, joining activities and spending time together to talk and hold hands.

"They were completely intertwined with each other," daughter Carla Smith said.

When the couple tested positive for COVID-19 just before Thanksgiving, Mary Agnes Smith's decline accelerated. As she slept, her husband pulled his wheelchair close to her bedside, talking to her, patting her on the arm. At times, he sang words of comfort: "I love you. Hallelujah. It's a good day."

"He was just trying to connect to her and make her happy," Carla Smith said.

But eventually, he fell silent as COVID-19 took its toll, she said. He was sleeping when his 93-year-old wife died. Hours later he, too, passed.

He had recently turned 90 years old and said he intended to live to 100.

"They're both gone and my life changed abruptly," Smith said. "I just thought I would have more time with them."

Adrian and Jackie Kapsner were wedded to their lifestyle as much as they were to each other.

"They dearly loved each other," said son Matt Kapsner of Sweetwater Creek, Colo. "They had a symbiotic relationship. They got from one another what they didn't have themselves."

Jackie brought a love of art, music and books to the union while Adrian brought a love for skiing, golf and travel. "They gave value to one another's lives," Matt Kapsner said. "They were attached at the hip."

But when COVID-19 hit, the social isolation imposed to stop the spread of the disease chipped away at the very things that kept the Kapsners and many others their age active and engaged.

"COVID shrunk their entire life and that was sad," said their daughter, Kitty Kapsner of St. Louis Park.

Meanwhile, health issues began taking a toll on 85-year-old Adrian Kapsner while a tumor on his wife's spine caused balance and mobility issues for her. Surgery and rehabilitation remedied most of that for Jackie Kapsner, 81. The long-term prognosis for her husband, however, wasn't as good.

The couple moved out of their Edina home in October and into a Golden Valley senior living community where Adrian Kapsner got round-the-clock care on the first floor and his wife got the help she needed in a fifth-floor apartment.

Weeks after moving in, they tested positive for COVID-19. Eventually, breathing became difficult and the pain unbearable.

Taken to the hospital, Jackie Kapsner improved, then abruptly worsened. She died Dec. 3 as a nurse held her hand.

"I was prepared to lose my dad this year," Kitty Kapsner said. "His heart was failing. But I never thought my mom would die. I look at her obituary every now and then because I still feel like my mom is going to call me again."

With little time to grieve his mother's death two days earlier, Matt Kapsner was on the phone from his Colorado home, struggling to say goodbye to his dad who was losing his fight with COVID-19.

"'Dad, we love you,'" Matt Kapsner said into the phone, crying and searching for words to ease his father's pain. "I stopped my blubbering and told him, 'Mom has died. Jackie isn't here anymore. You need to follow her."

His father let out a painful gasp, later passing away in the early hours of Dec. 6.

Their deaths leave a gaping hole, said Chris Kapsner, the oldest of the four adult children, who lives near Boyceville, Wis., on the family farm. "These were tough days."

As medical director of the emergency department at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, he has seen COVID-19 close-up.

"Becoming orphans at any age is hard," Chris Kapsner said. "You're accustomed to having your parents in your life and then it's all gone."

Mel Awes was a firecracker and a fun-maker, prone to spontaneity, whose energy filled a room. He was famous for calling every friend and relative on their birthdays and cheering Minnesota's sports teams. Sue, a writer and folk painter known for her hospitality, exuded a quieter warmth and anchored her spouse.

At 81 and 80, respectively, they were vibrant and healthy, active in their church and charitable work.

Conversations with either could go from depth to hilarity, their children said. They wanted to know your story, accept you for who you were and be your biggest cheerleader.

Faith and family were the couple's foundation. In a July blog post, Sue described her children and their spouses, grandchildren and great-grandchild as "the joy of our old age."

When the coronavirus arrived, family birthday gatherings and vacations were curtailed, and the couple had only a few relatives in their bubble. In late October, after months of isolation, Mel and Sue attended a small indoor gathering, where everyone wore masks and socially distanced. A few days later, they began to feel ill.

By mid-November, both were hospitalized, and their children called for updates three times a day. Staff taped a paper heart on Sue's window, which faced the parking lot, and loved ones gathered below it to hold vigil. One day, their youngest daughter sat in her car and watched "Notting Hill," her mom's favorite, as a way to connect. They prayed for a miracle but prepared for the worst.

The couple's conditions slowly declined, in tandem: first Sue's, then Mel's, as if he were following her.

On Dec. 10, when it was time to say goodbye, the children entered their parents' room to find that staff had positioned them side-by-side, hand-in-hand.

The children touched their parents' skin and ran fingers through their hair. They listed every family member's name and reminded them how much they were loved by each one.

Before the couple had been sedated, and could still speak with labored breath, Mel and Sue told their children they were not afraid to die. Sue went first and then Mel followed, about 25 minutes later.

Sharing the news on Facebook, their daughter Emily Awes Anderson of Minneapolis described her belief that her parents were now in a better place and the agony of being without them.

"What now for us," she wrote. "And our Christmas, and New Years, and birthdays, and Florida, and Mondays, and Tuesdays, and North Shore, and drop ins, and growing ups, and years, and tomorrow, and this afternoon?"

MaryLynn.Smith@startribune.com 612-673-4788

Rachel.Hutton@startirbune.com 612-673-4569

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Together in life and death: Minnesota couples battle COVID-19 - Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Editors note: Three topics kept us transfixed this year: the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the election and a wave of protests demanding racial justice. As the year comes to an end, the Tribune-Review explores the moments that defined the year.

Amid a pandemic that dominated the news cycle day in and day out for most of the year, 2020 might still be remembered as the year that nothing happened no concerts or festivals, no vacations or far-flung flights, no parties or late nights out at the bar, no graduations, proms, new movie premieres, Black Friday, hugs, reunions or holidays.

The year that changed everything, for most, stole something sacred. For the friends and families of nearly 15,000 who died in Pennsylvania including 899 in Allegheny County and 379 in Westmoreland even more was stolen. For hundreds of thousands of others across the state, life stood still for weeks at a time as they isolated or quarantined from positive tests or possible exposures. Untold numbers will continue on with lingering effects of a virus that at this time one year ago still seemed like a far-off threat one not to cloud the holiday spirit and close of a decade.

Hindsight, though

Spring-summer

On March 6, the virus became a reality in Pennsylvania when Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Rachel Levine announced the first two presumed positive cases in the commonwealth. The two ill patients residents of Delaware and Wayne counties contracted the virus through travel, not community transmission, Levine said. Two more presumed positive cases were announced the next day.

By March 10, long-term care facilities in and around Pittsburgh began limiting visits as a precautionary measure, and some schools began closing because of exposure scares. Three days later, Wolf ordered a two-week closure of all districts across the state.

The same day, March 13, the first case of the virus in Southwestern Pennsylvania was reported in Washington County. One day later, the virus arrived in Allegheny County in two Pittsburgh residents living in the same household, according to county health director Debra Bogen. By March 15, the governor ordered in-person dining at Allegheny County bars and restaurants to halt, and the county saw its first virus-related hospitalization.

When the county announced its first cases on March 14, I was only two days into a job I wasnt supposed to start for a couple of months, Bogen said last week looking back on the year.

She said she was excited for the opportunities before her in Allegheny County, but the pandemic was still on her mind.

Even though I knew the pandemic was coming and would eventually make it to Allegheny County, it didnt quite feel real at the beginning, she said. I was reading about it every day in the news and thinking about it, but I just couldnt quite operationalize it in my head at that point. I wish I had a crystal ball for this pandemic, but sadly I do not.

On March 16, the shutdown went into place, and all nonessential businesses were ordered to close for what began as two weeks. Locally, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties would not see even the beginnings of a phased reopening until May. March 18 saw the states first death from the virus, and Westmoreland County reported its first case March 19.

Bud Mertz, Westmorelands director of public safety, said hed hoped in the beginning the situation would not become as dire as it has, with totals in the county standing at 17,989 cases and 379 deaths as of Dec. 26.

I was hoping we didnt get to that point, he said.

In early April, officials asked residents to wear a mask when in public, and the first hints of how a public health issue would become a political issue were seen. The state surpassed 10,000 cases April 4. Pennsylvania in November crossed that same grim level in covid-19 deaths. The state would hit 100,000 cases one month later.

In mid-May, most Southwestern Pennsylvania counties moved into the yellow phase of Wolfs reopening plan. The move allowed retail stores to reopen, along with child care facilities and liquor stores. Restaurants still could not allow in-person dining, and social gatherings remained limited, though that limit increased from 10 to 25. Later, restaurants received guidance for allowing outdoor dining.

In early June, the region moved into the green phase all types of establishments were permitted to reopen but with capacity limitations. Cases in Allegheny County surged in the weeks after, and Bogen ordered all bars and restaurants to halt on-premise alcohol sales for two weeks.

A rise in cases after weeks of decline prompted state officials to make masks mandatory.

Fall-winter

The long-talked-about resurgence came to fruition and was seen daily as new case counts rose from the hundreds to more than 12,000 some days. The surge has been reflected at the county level as well, with Allegheny County posting new case counts in the thousands and Westmoreland County hitting more than 600 one day in mid-December.

In Westmoreland County, Decembers cases represent 45% of total cases and the months deaths mark 44% of total deaths. At the current rate of cases, its possible, if not likely, that 50% of Westmoreland Countys covid cases occurred in December.

Mertz said one upside, if it can be called that, has been new relationships forged between his department and others across the county.

This pandemic has allowed us to expand and work with and partner with a lot of entities and agencies we were never partnered with before, he said. The relationships have been astronomical to say the least.

Onward

Mertz said he understands how tired people are.

Its going to take some time, and we need to have some patience, he said. I can totally understand everybodys pandemic fatigue, but we dont have any alternative right now. I just hope and pray that everybody stays on board and understands that we can put an end to this.

The end appeared closer in December when two vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were reported to be safe and effective. Both vaccines, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within days of each other were developed faster than any previously approved vaccine in the United States. Scientists said they took advantage of years of technological advances.

The first batches of the Pfizer vaccine using so-called messenger RNA technology arrived in Pittsburgh on Dec. 13. Five UPMC employees, with pomp and circumstance and TV cameras, received the first of their two injections. The event made tangible the long-awaited light at the end of the covid tunnel.

A few days later, frontline workers at Excela Health and Allegheny Health Network began to receive the vaccine. The arrival of the vaccines was called historic, remarkable and unprecedented.

You feel hope, said John Giesey, Emergency department Clinical Director at Excela, one of dozens of workers to get the vaccine.

The vaccines will next be distributed to other groups such as seniors and residents of the regions long-term care facilities. They wont be widely available for the public until late spring or early summer.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh continue to work on another version of a covid vaccine.

Bogen expressed optimism for the new year.

For 2021, know that it will get better, she said. Mitigation measures will work and will start to bring down the case counts. Fewer people will be hospitalized. Fewer people will die. And the vaccine is here. Yes, rollout will seem slow, and I know there is going to be frustration as people wait, but please be patient. There will be vaccine for you.

Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, the whole region, is strongest when we work together. Weve seen this time and time again, so lets make 2021 a year of unity and push back the virus so we can return to the way of life we love and are so fiercely proud of.

Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 412-380-8519, mguza@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Categories:Local | Regional

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Coronavirus pandemic dominated the headlines in 2020 - TribLIVE

The West VirginiaDepartment of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of December 27, 2020, there have been 1,452,115total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 80,710 total cases and 1,254deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the death of a 90-yearold female from Kanawha County.

Thecontinued loss of West Virginia lives weighs heavily on all of us, with thegreatest sadness borne by family and friends, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHRCabinet Secretary. We extend our deepest sympathy.

CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour (693),Berkeley (5,901), Boone (1,005), Braxton (265), Brooke (1,305), Cabell (4,924),Calhoun (122), Clay (245), Doddridge (235), Fayette (1,657), Gilmer (372),Grant (732), Greenbrier (1,349), Hampshire (923), Hancock (1,740), Hardy (726),Harrison (2,746), Jackson (1,091), Jefferson (2,230), Kanawha (8,296), Lewis(467), Lincoln (713), Logan (1,554), Marion (1,664), Marshall (1,874), Mason(969), McDowell (925), Mercer (2,574), Mineral (2,057), Mingo (1,372),Monongalia (5,076), Monroe (604), Morgan (621), Nicholas (618), Ohio (2,389),Pendleton (274), Pleasants (531), Pocahontas (337), Preston (1,564), Putnam(2,869), Raleigh (2,532), Randolph (1,059), Ritchie (321), Roane (282), Summers(401), Taylor (651), Tucker (302), Tyler (331), Upshur (827), Wayne (1,615),Webster (131), Wetzel (654), Wirt (206), Wood (4,686), Wyoming (1,103).

Delays may be experienced with the reporting ofinformation from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillancecontinues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those testedin a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state asan individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Such is the caseof Clay, Lewis, Randolph, and Tucker counties in this report.

The total number of vaccines received andadministered is shown on the Dashboard Overview page and is included on thedaily dashboard update. Please visit the dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

Free COVID-19 testing is available daily to all West Virginiaresidents. Please visithttps://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx to view the testing site map and location list.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 12-27-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

Eileen Carroll, left, sits for a portrait as her daughter, Lily, 11, attends school remotely from their home in Warwick, R.I. on Dec. 16. When Carroll's other daughter tested positive for the coronavirus, state health officials told her to notify anyone her daughter might have been around. Contact tracers, she was told, were simply too overwhelmed to do it. David Goldman/AP hide caption

Eileen Carroll, left, sits for a portrait as her daughter, Lily, 11, attends school remotely from their home in Warwick, R.I. on Dec. 16. When Carroll's other daughter tested positive for the coronavirus, state health officials told her to notify anyone her daughter might have been around. Contact tracers, she was told, were simply too overwhelmed to do it.

COVID-19 cases are spreading so fast that they're outpacing the contact-tracing capacities of some local health departments. Faced with mounting case loads, those departments are asking people who test positive for the novel coronavirus to do their own contact tracing.

The contact tracers of Washtenaw County in Michigan have been deluged with work.

Washtenaw is a county of about 350,000 residents who live in and around the city of Ann Arbor, about 45 minutes from Detroit. Until mid-October, a county team of 15 contact tracers was managing to keep up with the workload. But when coronavirus cases started to surge in the fall, they struggled to keep up. By Thanksgiving, more than 1,000 residents were testing positive for the novel coronavirus every week, and the tracers could not keep pace.

In Washtenaw County, the process starts with a group of people called case investigators, who receive lab reports of positive coronavirus tests. Their job is to call everyone who's tested positive for the virus, tell them they need to isolate themselves, and ask them for the names of people with whom they had close contact. After creating this list of potentially exposed "contacts," the investigators pass the list over to a new team, who use it to start the actual contact tracing.

The county's contact tracers are then responsible for calling infected people's close contacts and telling those people they need to quarantine. Each person who tests positive typically has several contacts, so as the number of positive cases builds, the number of calls that tracers have to make swells too.

In recent weeks, it's not just the number of positive cases that has increased, overwhelming the capacity of case investigators, but also the number of contacts that each of those people has, says contact tracer Madeline Bacolor.

"There's just so many more people that are gathering and that are exposed," she says. "It used to be, we had a case, and maybe that person had seen two people, and now it's a whole classroom full of daycare students or a whole workplace."

Bacolor says the motivation behind all the phone calls is simple: She tries to keep people who have been exposed to the virus away from people who have not.

That's crucial work, according to public health professor Angela Beck, because it breaks viral transmission chains and prevents the virus from spreading unchecked through a community.

Beck teaches at the University of Michigan, where she also runs the campus program for tracing coronavirus exposures among students.

When you're trying to contain an infectious disease, she says, running out of contact tracers is "not a situation that you want to be in."

But it's happening now in health departments in Michigan and around the U.S. where contact tracing workforces have grown, but not fast enough to keep pace with the pandemic's spread. To cope, the overburdened health departments have a new tactic: asking residents who test positive for the virus to do their own contact tracing.

Overwhelmed health officials forced to try 'a compromised strategy'

Once billed as one of the fundamental tools for stemming the spread of the virus, contact tracing has fallen apart in many regions of the country. It's a systematic breakdown that Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, says hasn't happened since the spread and stigma of HIV and AIDS in the 1980s and '90s.

In Michigan's rural northern peninsula, a public health district spanning five counties warned residents last month that their tracers were overwhelmed, and they might not receive a call at all, despite testing positive. The health workers had to focus their efforts on residents over 65, teens and children attending school in person, and people living in group settings.

In the state's southwest corner, contact tracers in Van Buren and Cass counties can no longer keep up with their calls. It's the same situation in Berrien County: "If you test positive, take action immediately by isolating and notifying close contacts," the Berrien County health officer urged residents in a press release.

Health officials have taken similar actions in all regions of the country, including Oregon, North Dakota, Ohio and Virginia.

In many health departments, the shortage of contact tracers has been exacerbated by a recent change in the quarantine guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reducing the quarantine period from 14 days to 10 for some individuals exposed to the virus.

The idea behind the change was that the risk of transmission after 10 days of quarantine was low, and shorter quarantine periods might increase people's willingness to comply with the orders. But the shift also meant that contact tracers had to spend time learning and explaining the new procedures, at the same time as caseloads were exploding.

Tedi Milgrom, a contact tracer for the health department in Washtenaw County, Michigan, calls a person who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus. Milgrom and her colleagues have been overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 cases over the last month. Washtenaw County Health Department hide caption

Tedi Milgrom, a contact tracer for the health department in Washtenaw County, Michigan, calls a person who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus. Milgrom and her colleagues have been overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 cases over the last month.

"It makes things more confusing," says Bacolor, the contact tracer in Washtenaw County. "People might be hearing something different from their job or school than they are from the health department."

Bacolor's experience was common among contact tracers, says Lori Tremmel Freeman, the CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said local health officials had little warning from the CDC about how the quarantine guidance would be changing.

"To just issue [new quarantine guidance] at the federal level and expect it to be implemented across the country really is a disservice to local health departments who have to explain it on top of dealing with the pandemic," Tremmel Freeman says. "They are scrambling right now."

Asking infected people, some of whom might be sick, to call their own friends and families in effect, conduct their own contact tracing operation is far from ideal, public health experts agree.

"It is a last resort tool," says Beck, the University of Michigan professor. "It is the best that we can do in the situation that we're in, but it's a compromised strategy."

Contact tracing is more than just alerting people to a potential exposure, so they can quarantine. Part of the process is to do carefully structured interviews with the exposees, to determine if they've developed symptoms of COVID-19. If so, contacts of those people also need to be traced and told to quarantine, to prevent the virus from proliferating through successive chains of people in the community.

Trained contact tracers also often ask valuable questions to learn more about how the virus was transmitted from person to person, so that local health officials can piece together an understanding about which settings and activities seem particularly likely to promote spread in-person choir rehearsals and crowded bars, for example and which are unlikely to generate outbreaks.

Contact tracing is one key part of a tried-and-true strategy known as "test, trace and isolate." Public health professor Angela Beck says that the strategy has been used all over the world, and it works when there are enough people and enough time to do it properly.

Effective contact tracing can help mitigate the economic pain of a pandemic because it means that only people with known exposures to the virus must keep away from work, school and other activities, she says.

But success requires significant investment in public health infrastructure, something that Beck and other researchers say has been lacking for decades in the U.S.

This story comes from NPR's health reporting partnership with Kaiser Health News.

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New Pandemic Twist: Have Newly-Infected Do Their Own Contact Tracing : Shots - Health News - NPR

President Trump Signs $2.3 Trillion Funding & Relief Package, Extends Unemployment Assistance, Eviction MoratoriumJust hours ago, President Trump signed a massive $2.3 trillion COVID-19 funding package, averting a government shutdown, and providing relief to millions of Americans.

Gateway School District Extends Full Remote Learning Model Until Mid-JanuaryGateway School District announced it is extending its full remote learning model through mid-January.

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Report: Baltimore Ravens Fined $250,000 For COVID-19 Violations That Led To Coronavirus Outbreak Among Team - CBS Pittsburgh

Dr. Peter Salk was one of the first children to receive his dad's polio in 1953. Here's what he thinks could happen with the COVID-19 vaccines. USA TODAY

USA TODAY is keeping track of the news surrounding COVID-19 as a pair of vaccines join the U.S. fight against a virus that has killed more than330,000Americans since the first reported fatality in February. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates on vaccine distribution, including who is getting the shots and where, as well as other COVID-19 news from across the USA TODAY Network. Sign up forourCoronavirus Watch newsletterfor updates directly toyour inbox,join ourFacebook grouporscroll throughour in-depth answersto reader questionsfor everything you need to know about the coronavirus.

In the headlines:

Countries throughout the European Union have received theirfirst shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech. Authorities plan toadminister the first shots to the most vulnerable people in a coordinated Sunday effort. Butofficials in Hungarydisregarded the campaign and started administeringvaccines on Saturday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a video posted on Facebook and Twitter thatthe number of Californians hospitalized because of the coronavirus could double in 30 days if current trends continue.

South Korea, previously a success story in handling the coronavirus pandemic, is grappling with a severe uptick in cases during Christmas week:1,241 on Christmas Day alone. That's the largest daily increase the nation has ever seen.

The Duke women's basketball team is ending its 2020-21 season after just four games because ofconcerns about the coronavirus pandemic, the school announced Friday evening.

CNN reports that cases ofthe new strain of the coronavirus originating in the United Kingdom wereannouncedin France and Spain on Christmas Day.

Today's numbers:The U.S. has more than 18.7million confirmed coronavirus cases and 330,000 deaths,according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 79 million cases and 1.7million deaths.

Here's a closer look at today's top stories:

For many, the promise of a vaccine offers hope and relief. But Josie Passes, a member of the Crow Tribe inMontana,is wary of its long-term consequences.

Though tribal communitieshave beendisproportionately ravaged by COVID-19 nationwide, Passes is not alone in her reluctance. As tribes begin to receive and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, many tribal members hesitate to get immunized.

Some people fear Indigenous populations will be used as "guinea pigs," whileothers are reluctant to trust the Indian Health Service.Some feel invincible, as tribes have survived devastating diseases such assmallpoxand violent massacres. Many would prefer to wait and observe the effects of the vaccine as more people receiveit.

Experts say this skepticismis warranted. Tribes have experienced disinvestment, incompetence and brutality at the hands of the federal government. The consequences of this neglect transcend generations and manifest today as systemic inequalities, many of which were further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.Read more here.

Nora Mabie, Great Falls Tribune

ABlackdoctor who died of COVID-19after weeks of battling the virus said she was mistreated and delayed proper care at an Indianahospital because of her race. Dr. Susan Moore, 52, died Dec. 20 following multiple hospitalizations for complications from COVID-19, first at IU Health North and later at Ascencion-St. Vincent in Carmel, Indiana.

Her frustrations with the care provided at IU Health werechronicled onFacebook in multiple updates.The first came Dec. 4 when she said delays in her treatment and diagnosis were motivated by the color of her skin.

Citing patient privacy, an IU Health spokesperson declined to speak specifically to the casebut shared a written statement on behalf of IU Health North:

As an organization committed to equity and reducing racial disparities in health care, we take accusations of discrimination very seriously and investigate every allegation," the statement reads. "Treatment options are often agreed upon and reviewed by medical experts from a variety of specialties, and we stand by the commitment and expertise of our caregivers and the quality of care delivered to our patients every day.

Justin L. Mack and Holly V. Hays, Indianapolis Star

The COVID-19 crisishas devastated movie theater owners of all sizes, but small independent owners are feeling it more profoundly. Nationwide, a handful already have gone dark permanently and 70% of small- to midsize movie theaters are at risk of shutting down without federal aid, according to the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO).

Many are scrambling to survive with private screenings and popcorn specials, among other strategies. Their loss would be a big blow to Americas cultural life. They represent a major source of independently produced, more serious art films. And in an age dominated by sleek multiplexes, their grand old, marquee-adorned theaters often provide the only entertainment in Americas small and rural towns.

Fortunately, salvation appears on the horizon. A little-noticed provision of the $900 billion COVID relief bill passed by Congress this week would provide $15 billion to struggling small movie theaters, live entertainment and performing arts venuesand museums. A last-minute lobbying campaign by NATO added movie theaters and $5 billion to theoretically cover their financial needs.

Paul Davidson

Dr. Peter Salk vaguely remembers the day he was vaccinated against polio in 1953. His father, Dr. Jonas Salk, made history by creating the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh and inoculatedhis family as soon as he felt itwas safe and effective.

Cases of polio peaked in the early 1950s, but it arrivedevery summer disabling an average of more than 35,000 people each year for decades, sometimes causing paralysis and death,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Public officials closed swimming pools, movie theaters, amusement parks and other pastimesthat naturally came with summer vacation.

Jonas Salks vaccine helped wipepolio from most of the world, something that many people hope willhappen with the coronavirus vaccine. However, Salk warns eradicating polio from the United States was a long and difficult journey, and he doesnt expect eliminating COVID-19 will be any easier.

Its going to be a long road, just even getting enough vaccines out to people around the world ... this virus does not respect borders,said Salk, a doctor and a part-time professor of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh, where his father developed the polio vaccine. It travels by airplane everywhere in the world and unless this virus can be contained everywhere, its going to continue to spread and be a problem.

Adrianna Rodriguez

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Coronavirus updates: World approaches 80 million cases; European Union to roll out first shots of Pfizer vaccines starting Sunday - USA TODAY

People traveling immediately after the holiday may face uncertainty: Many private testing clinics and labs are closed on Christmas Day, so testing within the 72-hour window may prove difficult, especially for the P.C.R. screening, which must be sent to a lab and can take several days to process.

Dec. 25, 2020, 7:16 p.m. ET

The rapid antigen test, a relatively new tool to detect the virus, gives a result in around 30 minutes, but it is not as widely available, although it is cheaper. Heathrow Airport, for example, charges passengers about $130 for P.C.R. results with 48 hours and about $60 for antigen tests with results within 45 minutes.

Both tests are offered at major British airports including Heathrow and Gatwick, Londons two major hubs, and Manchester Airport but passengers must register in advance. It was unclear how many would be able to procure a test and get a result in time for travel.

The introduction of new travel restrictions led to concerns that travelers to the United States would flock to the airport, as Londoners did at train stations last Saturday when tighter domestic rules were announced. But employees at Heathrow on Friday described a normal, if quieter, stream of passengers typical of Christmas Day, with most appearing to travel on long-haul flights.

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Several airlines had already announced policies requiring proof of a negative test after a demand from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York that passengers arriving from London to John F. Kennedy International Airport would need to provide documentation of a negative test result.

We cant let history repeat itself with this new variant, Mr. Cuomo had written on Twitter.

Also on Thursday, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said that passengers arriving at Newark Airport would need negative tests within 72 hours of departure to enter.

The American travel requirements are less draconian than those of other countries in Europe and Asia, which barred all travelers from Britain after the new coronavirus variant emerged. Experts are skeptical that travel bans can stop the spread of the variant. In fact, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said there was a good chance that the variant was already in the country.

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US Will Require UK Travelers to Have a Negative Coronavirus Test - The New York Times

A poster about the new, fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus warns some Britons to stay home. The sign is displayed near King's Cross railway station in London. Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

A poster about the new, fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus warns some Britons to stay home. The sign is displayed near King's Cross railway station in London.

A new variant of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in England and raising international alarms. This new variant now accounts for more than 60% of the cases in London. And scientists say the variant is likely more contagious than previous versions of the virus.

Health officials have closed international travel to the United Kingdom. The British government has locked down much of the country. And scientists all over the world are rushing to figure out how the virus mutated and how big a threat the new variant poses.

Here's what we know so far:

Throughout this pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 the virus that causes COVID-19 has been mutating. It has accumulated about one or two mutations each month. That's not surprising. Viruses always mutate.

But this new variant in the U.K., called B.1.1.7, has acquired mutations much quicker than scientists expect. The variant has 17 different mutations in its genetic code. And eight of those mutations occur in a critical part of the virus, called the spike protein, which reaches out and binds to human cells during the initial stages of infection.

Scientists have already studied several of the mutations occurring in B.1.1.7, and they are cause for concern. One mutation, called N501Y, makes the virus bind more tightly to human cells. This mutation has also appeared, independently, in a rapidly spreading variant in South Africa.

Another mutation, called D614G, makes the virus more transmissible. B.1.1.7 also contains a small deletion in the virus's genetic code, called 69-70del, and that deletion helps the new variant evade the body's immune system in some people.

These mutations, combined with the fact that B.1.1.7 acquired many changes simultaneously, suggest this new variant didn't arise by chance, but rather the mutations are giving it an advantage. They are helping it adapt to humans.

When scientists first detected B.1.1.7 in late September, it rapidly took over parts of England, pushing out other forms of virus. By early December, the new variant had pushed out other forms of the virus in London and become the dominant one.

This rapid rise suggests B.1.1.7 is more transmissible than other forms of the virus. "There's no hard evidence, but it seems most likely," says biochemist Jeremy Luban at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "So if a person sneezes on a bus, the new variant is more likely to infect other people than the previous form of the virus."

To figure out transmissibility for certain, scientists have to bring B.1.1.7 into the lab and see if it's better at infecting cells and spreading between animals.

SARS-CoV-2 is already spreading quickly around the world. So a small increase might not make a big difference. It depends on how much better B.1.1.7 spreads.

In the end, how quickly the virus spreads depends on many factors, including people's behavior in a community. That is, whether they wear masks, physically distance and avoid big gatherings. Those factors could be more important than whether B.1.1.7 arrives in a community, says virus expert Pei-Yong Shi at the University of Texas Medical Branch. "With all these human interventions, it's hard to predict the course of the pandemic."

Scientists don't know for sure because this variant has just emerged, but so far, people who catch B.1.1.7 don't seem to be getting sicker.

"There is absolutely no evidence that this [variant of the] virus is more deadly," Luban says. "There's nothing at all to suggest that, and I don't think anyone that I know is worried about that possibility."

Again, scientists don't know for sure if the vaccines will work as well with B.1.1.7. as they do with previous forms of the virus. They need to test out the new variant in laboratory experiments. But many scientists are optimistic.

Why? When we get a vaccine, our immune systems make many antibodies against a big chunk of the virus, not just one small section that could change when the virus mutates. So even if the variant contains 17 mutations, some antibodies targeting the vaccine will likely still bind and neutralize the virus.

"So if you're in line for the COVID-19 vaccine, stay in line. Don't give up your spot. Take it," says microbiologist Andrew Pekosz of Johns Hopkins University. "You know, everything is still looking good from the vaccine standpoint."

Researchers have already detected it in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia.

The U.K. has been vigilant about looking for new variants and following them. Other countries, including the U.S., haven't been tracking variants as closely. So new variants, such as B.1.1.7, have likely gone undetected.

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What We Know About The New U.K. Variant Of Coronavirus And What We Need To Find Out - NPR

For the second time this month, Gov. Charlie Baker is attempting to stem the surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Massachusetts with more stringent restrictions starting Saturday.

Bakerannounced a series of new rules Tuesday that crack down on gatherings and businesses and require hospitals to halt most elective surgeries.

Starting Saturday and running until at least noon on Jan. 10, restaurants, movie theaters, performance venues, casinos, offices, places of worship, retail businesses, fitness centers, health clubs, libraries, golf facilities, driving and flight schools, arcades, museums, and "sectors not otherwise addressed" must limit their customer capacity to a maximum of 25%.

All indoor gatherings and events will be limited to 10 people, while all outdoor gatherings and events will be limited to 25 people. Workers and staff are excluded from events' occupancy counts. The gatherings limit applies to private homes, event venues and public spaces.

Massachusetts hospitals must push back or cancel most elective inpatient invasive procedures that are nonessential starting Saturday as well, the state announced.

Gov. Charlie Baker announces new restrictions on Mass. residents to prevent another coronavirus surge, including reducing capacity for most industries to 25% and reducing indoor gatherings to a maximum of 10 people.

On Dec. 8, Baker announced that the state would move back a step in his phased reopening plan effective Dec. 13. That rollback meant capacity limits were lowered across an array of businesses, some indoor recreation venues were ordered to close again, and rules around mask-wearing and dining out were tightened.

State Rep. Jon Santiago, who is also an ER doctor at Boston Medical Center, has pressured leaders in Massachusetts to move more quickly and said that the latest restrictions do not go far enough.

"It's too little too late. I mean, we are in an emergency right now," Santiago said. "And so I would prefer we look forward to closing things like casinos and more indoor institutions - dining being one of them."

But Baker has said these steps are more favorable to a complete lockdown across the state, like the one that was imposed earlier this year. Business owners argue that the restrictions are making it near-impossible for them to operate.

However, a day after announcing the new business restrictions, Baker said Massachusetts restaurants, retailers and other small businesses hurt by the pandemic will be eligible for grants through a new $668 million small business relief fund operated by the state.

Baker and other health officials in New England have urged residents to celebrate the holidays safely this year by limiting gatherings to immediate household members.

A new slate of restrictions for Massachusetts gatherings, businesses and elective surgeries was announced Tuesday, the latest to come amid a spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, with fears of another one arriving after the holidays.

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More Coronavirus Restrictions Start Saturday in Mass. Here's What to Know - NBC10 Boston