Category: Corona Virus

Health care personnel are defined by ACIP as paid and unpaid persons serving in health care settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials. These health care personnel may include, but are not limited to; emergency medical service personnel, nurses, nursing assistants, physicians, technicians, therapists, phlebotomists, pharmacists, students and trainees, direct support professionals, clinical personnel in school settings or correctional facilities, contractual staff not employed by the health care facility, and persons (e.g., clerical, dietary, environmental services, laundry, security, maintenance, engineering and facilities management, administrative, billing, and volunteer personnel) not directly involved in patient care but potentially exposed to infectious agents that can be transmitted among from health care personnel and patients. Healthcare settings refers to the CDC definition of the places where healthcare is delivered and includes, but is not limited to; acute care facilities, long term care facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, nursing home and assisted living facilities, home health care, vehicles where health care is delivered (e.g., mobile clinics), and outpatient facilities, such as dialysis centers, physician offices, adult day facilities and others.

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Coronavirus in Pennsylvania: Who can get the vaccine and when? - WPXI Pittsburgh

The Atlanta Hawks are facing the challenge of playing this season as coronavirus cases continue to rise.

Last season, the NBA executed a nearly flawless approach to the 2019-20 season in the Orlando, Florida, bubble. This season puts more responsibility on each team to keep people safe.

Before the preseason began, the NBA sent a 134-page memo to teams detailing the seasons health and safety protocols. The memo, obtained by WABE, gives explicit rules for preventing, managing and resolving cases of COVID-19 for team personnel.

Each organization decides how to carry out certain processes, such as contact tracing or educating players on the virus.

The memo says that its likely some staff, players and other participants will test positive. But it gives little information about the circumstances under which the season would be suspended.

The occurrence of independent cases or a small or otherwise expected number of COVID-19 cases will not require a decision to suspend or cancel the 2020-21 season, the memo says.

Heres how you can expect the Atlanta Hawks and other teams to navigate the pandemic.

Before the start of the season, Hawks personnel will be divided into three tiers. Tier 1 includes players, coaches and on-court staff that work directly with the players. They are not allowed to access areas that are used for business, offices and corporate spaces.

Tier 2 is made up of non-playing personnel and staff that dont regularly interact with the team in a basketball setting. For example, the Hawks catering service or a social media manager. They have access to restricted areas but only if necessary.

Restricted areas are the teams basketball and training facilities. At State Farm Arena, areas such as the court, locker rooms, and other places players frequent are restricted.

Tier 3 are those employed by the team who dont need to interact with those in Tier 1 or 2 directly. These employees such as facilities staff, specialists and consultants cannot interact with those in Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Everyone has to wear a mask when they are at the teams facility, except players on the court or training. But only Tier 1 and Tier 2 individuals must be tested daily during the season.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 make up the Hawks traveling party. When staying at a hotel, the team will coordinate with the hotel to have an exclusive staff that services the traveling party.

Additionally, the traveling party must have privatized access points to enter and leave the hotel. Further steps are to be taken to reduce interaction with non-Hawks personnel, such as dedicating an entire hotel floor to the Hawks.

Anyone that tests positive or inconclusive will take a second test for confirmation.

The Hawks were required to establish a designated isolation area in Atlanta to house individuals with a positive or inconclusive COVID-19 test or symptoms. For away-game travel, there are designated isolation areas in all 29 other team markets.

When discontinuing isolation, there can be a time-based or test-based resolution. A time-based resolution requires that 10 days pass since the date of the first positive test or symptom, and the individual must have no symptoms.

We intend to adhere to the processes laid out by the league; the penalties for not [doing so] are in the memo, said a Hawks spokesperson. They declined to answer more questions.

The Hawks are one of three teams that are allowing fans to watch games. A small number of friends and family will be allowed at State Farm Arena to start the season. On Jan. 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Hawks will host a crowd at about 10% capacity, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Hawks first regular season game is on Dec. 23.

Originally posted here:

How The Atlanta Hawks Will Navigate Coronavirus This Season | 90.1 FM WABE - WABE 90.1 FM

This article first ran inHot Pod, an industry-leading trade newsletter about podcasting by Nick Quah.

Photo: Getty Images

Any summation of the past year begins and ends with COVID, even if were just talking about podcasts. Given everything thats happened, how can it not?

We had just a little over two months of expected life in 2020 before counties across the United States started implementing initial lockdown measures, drastically altering the shape of everyday activity. Movement was scaled down, businesses were shuttered, and a great cloud of uncertainty descended upon the populace as this massive and utterly terrifying thing unfolded all around us. At the end of March, back when most Americans still didnt quite know what was to come, those running podcast businesses started to grapple with the potential ramifications over the long run. What was all this going to do to my livelihood? How bad was this going to get?

Somewhat bad, it turned out, but only for a while. At the beginning,podcast listening experienced a noticeable drop, asdisappearing commutes scrubbed out one of the mediums central consumption contexts. The economic uncertainty caused by nationwide closures resulted in revised and contracted spending budgets among advertisers, which put podcast companiesin the position of bracing for fallout. Meanwhile, the work continued: publishers and production teams pushed to fundamentally restructure the way they did things. There wasa widespread shift towards largely remote workflows: hosts migrated to their closets (heres Ira Glass, suit sans socks), pillows were hoarded, and skeleton crews were preserved on-site. Historically-resisted compromises were made: sure, audio quality might suffer a bit, but whatever, there were more important considerations. At the time, it was unclear how long all of this would last. I vividly recall an executive telling me in late March: Yeah, were all living out of our closets for a while, but I imagine well be back in the studio within six months or so. A voice in the back of my head continues to laugh bitterly to this day.

The hit didnt end up lasting for very long. By the summers end, there were indications that medium-wide listeninghad stabilized, and were closing out the year with some fully expecting listening to surpass pre-2020 levels. Several factors possibly accounting for this recovery come to mind. Some of this can be attributed to fundamental changes in the way audiences integrate podcasts into their lives: less listening during morning commutes,more listening during afternoonsand within expanded in-between moments as people figured out new ways to lay out their day, that kind of thing. I suspect there are some supply-side effects to be considered as well, as more pools of celebrity and talent, deprived from shooting television shows or performing on-stage, took to podcast feeds (among other publishing spaces) to preserve their relationship with their followings. Its also worth acknowledging a darker truth: its simply the case that large swathes of the country continue to live out their days as if there wasnt a pandemic, and for this portion of the American population, aspects of normal pre-pandemic daily life re-materialized daily commute and gym runs included.

Im reluctant to say were ending the year with the podcast business back on track, because that framing doesnt feel exactly right. I suppose you could say the podcast business turned out to be resilient, though the reality is that it was insulated in much the same waysthe professional class has been broadly insulated by the full economic effects of the pandemic. Yes, there are aspects of podcast production that rendered uniquely suited for this crisis environment relatively lower costs, capacities towards remote production and distant connections, community-orientations, and so on but theres also something to be said about how podcasting, as both a production and consumption culture, remains embedded in the more fortunate end ofthe so-called K-shaped recovery.

Anyway, weve made it this far into the column without a single mention of Spotify, so lets get to that. I reckon the Swedish audio streaming platform walked into 2020 with a different idea of how the year was supposed to play out. (You know, like the rest of us.) The company kicked off 2020 with a bang, announcinga blockbuster $250 million acquisition of The Ringer a move that embodied its ambitions around sports, global reach, and studio-style talent management that was probably meant to be the kick-off of a calendar-long stretch of back-to-back-to-back headlines. This was supposed to be the Year of Spotify, one where its many activities would be the oxygen pervading everything else in the ecosystem as others sought to jockey for the same spotlight. But the shock of the pandemic scattered its narrative, and while the company did proceed with a succession of other major steps whether itsthe exclusive Joe Rogan deal,the roll-out of the Michelle Obama podcast, the torrent of deals withKim KardashianandWarner Bros and DCand so on, plus yet another major acquisitionin the form of Megaphone, all of which are exceedingly consequential moves it remains the case that the company wasnt able to maintain full command of its story, in part due to the overwhelming nature of the pandemic and in part due to the uncertainties that the pandemic specifically brought to Spotify, which had to balance its podcast-centric optimism withmitigating the mixed advertising picture catalyzed by the pandemic.

Spotifys complications proved to be an opening for others. If 2019 was the year Spotify fundamentally reframed the podcast ecosystem, 2020 was the year several of its competitors, particularly those capable of matching in scale, doubled their efforts to meet the Swedish platform at the table. iHeartMedia continued its loud and messy push forward, doling out a seemingly endless scroll of new talent signings and show deals, leveraging its galaxy of radio-derived relationships to fuel its leap into modernity, and generally working hard to put a positive spin to its corporate narrative as ittries to draw attention away from the deep layoffs and cuts thats happening on the broadcast radio level. SiriusXM, another old world radio giant, also elbowed its way into the scene,paying $320 million to buy podcast industry stalwart Stitcherin its bid for relevance on the new frontier. Meanwhile, Amazon, long in anon-again off-again relationship with podcasts, now says it wants in again. The companys actual intended path forward remains unclear, though, as the Bezosian tech giant seems to be letting its two relevant divisions, Audible and Amazon Music,amble forward in their own conflicting ways, even asa pricey Wondery acquisition is thought to be in its last mile.

You would be correct in reading these machinations on the Big Podcasting level as an expression of further industry consolidation. Consolidation is largely about control over the facilitation of power and gain, and should each of these players realize their intended positions in the podcast ecosystem, were talking about a situation in which the vast majority of activity and revenue could ultimately run through at least one of these corporations. Theres also a possible causal picture to be painted here, with the effects of the pandemic directly contributing to the severity of these consolidatory outcomes. Im partial to this reading, if not directly (the pandemic is seriously hurting my bottom line, time to work with or sell to Corporate Player X), then indirectly (Im anxious about the pandemics uncertainties, time to work with or sell to Corporate Player X).

Quick sidebar. While I fully expected more acquisitions this year, even without the pandemic, I didnt expect the New York Times to turn out to be such an active buyer in the audio market. Working from no particular position of need, the Times picked up two audio companies this year:Audm, a service that adapts longform features into audio experiences, and more outrageously,Serial Productions. In hindsight, the Times was perhaps the most appropriate home for Snyder, Koenig, & Co., being a unique sort of major media player thats able to give the team the arrangement, prestige, and money (of course) they deserve given their stature in the ecosystem. Serial Productions going to Spotify or iHeartMedia wouldve just been weird, and also, sad in a soul-sucking sort of way.

Anyway, as Big Podcasting continues to reshape itself, we also started to see something over the past year that could serve as its proper counterbalance: the beginnings of organized audio labor. While unions have long been a factor in public radio workforces (and Hollywood), 2020 saw a real unionizing push among audio workers in digital media firms to get them recognized as creative labor worthy of first-class union identification.With guidance from WGA East, this push has become increasingly prominent, withthe organizing coalition across three Spotify-owned audio divisionsdriving a great deal of the current attention. Parallel to this labor push is a crucial conversation that popped up over the summer aboutintellectual property ownershipand the question of just how much creators should own in this new podcast economy.Diversity and the prospects for creators of colorswere central dimensions to this discourse, its prominence inspired in part by the broader movement for racial justice that was sparked over the summer, as was the many ways in which the pandemic highlighted the precarities of being a worker not just a creative worker, but a worker, period in an American labor system that doesnt take very good care of its people.

The past twelve months have been busy as all hell, perhaps somewhat improbably, given the calamity that were only beginning to crawl out from under. The past 1500 words only cover a select few themes from a year that had so many: we could go on to go back over the increasingly tight relationship between Hollywood and podcasting, Apples intriguing new place in the universe (andSteve Wilsons departure), the rise of right-wing podcasting and what it says about the podcast-broadcast relationship. But hey, we only have so much space, and you shouldfeel free to hit the archives.

One last thing I do want to leave you with, though, is something thats both a clich and still totally true. There have been several instances over the past two years or so when a specific event made me say out loud, This marks the end of an era. The fact I keep feeling compelled to say that with each new event suggests Ive been incorrect at every turn on that front, and to this day, Im still not quite sure which event in particular rises up to being that marker. But whichever event turns out to be the actual peg in hindsight, this past year in its totality between the coronavirus and the consolidation and the shifting relationship between capital and creative worker really felt like a genuine turning of the page. Seriously, I mean it this time.

By Caroline Crampton

This year has done strange things to my memory. I can recall certain incidents with complete clarity such as the face-to-face conversation I had with someone in early March about whether they should still fly overseas that weekend to attend a journalism conference, yikes and yet I also struggle to remember what I wrote about for this very newsletter this time last week. All of which is to say, this season of year-end retrospectives has seemed like harder work than usual, because all the listening and writing that I did even a few weeks ago feels like it was work done by somebody else.

In another sense, though, this feeling of separation has provided a usefully dispassionate lens through which to view my own year covering podcasts. To this end, Ive spent the last week reading back throughmy own archive on Hot Pod, noting the themes that preoccupied me at different moments. Its been an instructive exercise, allowingme to come upon what I think is my main reflection on this year, which is that I think that independence is becoming attractive again, even for podcasts with a substantial audience and value to a network or platform,

To explain what I mean by that, I want to start by looking back at a specific phrase I wrote inthe 2020 previewthat we published at the top of the year: The independent podcaster will likely face turbulent times ahead. Many of the predictions we made in that column didnt age especially well, given the coronavirus in particular, Im thinking about the one I made about how physical spaces such as studios or co-working facilities were going to be great extra revenue streams but I stand by that thought about the independent podcaster. Indeed, all the consolidation and acquisition we saw over the past twelve months has yielded an especially anxious and uncertain time for many indies, especially those reliant for monetisation on a company, network, or station that have changed hands or direction over the past year.

That said, some of the responses to these turbulent times have surprised me a little. While podcasting is moving towards the uncharted waters of a new era in many ways, there is one aspect that feels like a return to the past: the fact that some medium-to-large shows have actively chosen independence again over network pick up or platform affiliation. In the immediate post-Serialyears, there was something of a sense that what success looks like for an acclaimed show was to find a long-term home or backer for it. A podcast network, perhaps, or a public radio station that would take the day-to-day work of monetisation and mitigating risk off the creators plate in exchange for a cut of revenue and/or intellectual property.

Nowadays, it feels to me like that aspiration is nowhere near as linear. Plenty of shows still seek and benefit from a corporate partner, which is fine and great. It just no longer feels like thats the only endgame on the cards. Thats because its become increasingly clear that such partnerships come with big downsides as they do with big benefits. There is greater transparency around the trade-offs now which is a good thing, in my opinion. Lets not be romanticising any of the outcomes here.

For all the help with ad sales, a network partner can also suddenly just pivot away from content, as Panoply (nowadays known as Spotifys Megaphone) did. Or they might suddenly downsize their podcast slate, as KCRW did this summer (leaving shows likeHere Be Monstersto walk the world solo once again). The flare up earlier this yearover intellectual property ownershipfeeds into this too. It feels as if theres a much greater recognition now about the costs as well as the benefits of getting involved with a big publisher.

Back in the 2014-2015 stretch, there was a small flurry of collectives and indie networks appearing that brought independent shows together around a common purpose and shared resources: The Heard, APMs Infinite Guest, Radiotopia, and so on. Some of those have ceased to exist since then, whileothers have taken a reputational hit this year, but more recently, other examples have sprouted up and begun to flourish: Multitude in NYC, Hub & Spoke in Boston, The Big Light in Glasgow. All of these entities are bets on collaborative independence, and the bet seems to be working out so far.

There were a few other data points from the past year that got me thinking about this. TheresHelen Zaltzmans departurefrom Radiotopia in favour of a new Patreon-based model, rather than seeking a post-PRX partnership with another podcast publisher. Theres Jeff Entmans aforementioned return to a community radio-esque model after his arrangement with KCRW dissolved. Theres the fact that this year Rose Eveleth has expanded her own critically acclaimed indie pod, Flash Forward, intoa networkwith the addition of two new shows on related topics. And then theresHollywood Handbook, the long-running Earwolf show thatssimilarly choosing Patreon-based independencebuilt off the strength of their substantial archive, seemingly in the wake of SiriusXM acquiring Stitcher.

At a time when theres more money than ever washing around in podcasting, an outside observer might assume that chasing the money is the only game in town. But as its always been the case, and as its increasingly internalized, that money comes with strings attached. It could be in the form of download targets, or creative restrictions, or simply limits to the true upside. Theres money and interest going into developing better tech solutions for monetising independents as well, whether thats via Acasts recent partnership with Patreon orSubstacks podcast hosting beta.

Going or staying independent isnt an easy choice, and it may well be that in the future some or all of the examples that Ive mentioned end up moving in-house somewhere, taking investment, or in some other way altering their models. Im going to be taking a sabbatical from writing in Hot Pod from the start of 2021 while I work on other writing projects, and Im very interested to see how this all appears to me once Im no longer scrutinising every development so closely every week. But for now, at the end of 2020, Im looking back at this year and what stands out to me are the times that I saw creators who could have chosen a path that would have taken them inside the companies now central to podcasting, but didnt.

In tomorrowsServant of Pod Morra Aarons-Mele joins the show this week talking aboutThe Anxious Achiever, the interview podcast she makes through the Harvard Business Review.

Theres been a lot of good discourse of late about the modern nature of work and well, how it sucks, basically, even if you genuinely love what youre doing. Ive long found entrepreneurship culture to be odious, painfully rich with business bro sensibilities that are intensely annoying in their dehumanization. But its only been in recent months that Ive started tapping into lines of thought that position the alienating nature of modern work within a reality of American policy that doesnt quite facilitate ways of being where you could properly be a human being separate from the work that you do. And thats a revelation that makes me hate business bros infinitely more.

Anyway, it is within this context that I enjoy Aarons-MelesThe Anxious Achievera whole lot, chiefly for the way it opens conversations about business culture should simply be more accommodating of mental health needs in general.

You can findServant of PodonApple Podcasts,Spotify, or the great assortment ofthird-party podcast appsthat are hooked up to the open publishing ecosystem.Desktop listeningis also recommended. Share, leave a review, so on.Speaking ofServant of Pod Were still releasing new episodes every Wednesday through the end of the year, so do keep an eye on the feed.

Also, Id just like to say: Im really proud of this show! Big shout-out to my collaborators at Rococo Punch extremely chill and talented people, all for working with me on this project, which features what I sincerely believe to be some of the best work Ive ever done. If you tried it out yet,please consider a listen.Oh, and my full picks for the Best Podcast of 2020 is out now. Find it on Vulture.

By Cherie Hu

Its fitting for this year-end column that one of the very last events I attended in person before everything locked down was theHot Pod Summit, which took place in early March. Packed in the main hall of a Brooklyn hostel, around two hundred people and myself politely asking each other whether we wanted to shake hands or bump elbows instead pondered how podcasting, a historically decentralized ecosystem, should be dealing with its own evolution, and sudden cash infusion, in real time.

The day opened with panels about Spotify and Sony Music Entertainment two companies that are not only aggressive investors in podcasts, but also happened to have built their reputation and bottom line in the music industry first. I co-moderated a panel about Sonysemerging podcast strategy, and on stage, I asked the companys VP of Podcast Marketing about whether Sonys podcast ambitions were inspired, at least in some way, by parallel moves from Spotify.

The idea that the same players starting to coalesce in podcasting are also some of the biggest players on the music side definitely informed our decision to start a podcast division, she said. We know those players and how to work with them, and thats a strength we can bring to the table.

As Iarguedshortly thereafter, this sounded to me like a diplomatic way of saying that Sony Musics foray into podcasting was a direct, competitive response to Spotify. Looking back, that conversation helped frame my understanding of how the rest of 2020 played out. In my mind, the main story about music and podcasts over the past year isnt just about the content itself, but rather, about the increasingly tight interplay between content technology, and how platforms are working to set the content agenda for the rest of the podcast industry just as they have with music for years.

Lets look at Spotifys UX as a prime example. We can see that the company is intentionally layering podcasts on top of music to create new hybrid, personalized listening and recommendation experiences altogether, in the hopes of competing with terrestrial radio while keeping subscribers hooked on the service. There are new playlist brands likeDaily Wellness,Daily Drive,Daily SportsandThe Get Up, which combine personalized music with a rotation of curated podcast excerpts that align with a particular theme (e.g. meditation, sports, current events). In turn, as Icoveredfor Hot Pod earlier this year, these hybrid music/podcast playlists have encouraged the creation of microcasts or shorter podcast episodes that are more digestible, fit better in the context of a crowded playlist and allow listeners to sample a given episode before investing more time into the show as a whole, the same way a music fan might listen to a single before diving into a whole album.

Most recently, Spotifylauncheda new native format in October 2020 that allows podcasters to legally add full music tracks to their shows in a way that pays out royalties to music rights holders, thanks to a direct integration with Anchor. This initially seemed like a positive development in a year where theres been relatively little progress in streamlining the music licensing process for podcasts, and wherebootleg music showscontinue to pop up on streaming services like clockwork.

But its far from perfect. Furthermore, this all actually illustrates the nature of Spotifys influence on the podcast industry as a whole, because it reinforces the closed ecosystem that the company is building over time (shows made on Anchor with full music tracks can be uploaded only to Spotify). Today, thanks to nearly $1 billion worth of acquisitions to date, Spotify owns a direct stake in almost every part of the value chain in the podcast industry, from content (Gimlet, The Ringer, Parcast) to distribution (Anchor) and monetization (Megaphone).

This has apparently scared some other tech corporations like Apple and Amazon, which are seemingly racing to catch up and get their respective podcast strategies together. With aquestionable rollout, Amazon Music and Audible added podcasts to their services in September, and now have exclusive content deals with celebs likeDJ KhaledandCommon, respectively. Again, I think the biggest trend to follow around Amazons podcasts in 2021 will be not just around content, but more around how Amazon incorporates podcasts into its vast technological ecosystem, especially with smart speakers. The lines between a podcast strategy and a voice strategy will likely continue to blur in the coming year.

Meanwhile, traditional content owners and partners are closely following these music services moves, recognizing the potential consumption opportunity and launching a diverse slate of music podcast shows. From record labels, Sony Music is currently working on over100 original podcast programslikeMy 90s Playlist, while Universal Music Group and Wondery launched their first joint podcast,Jacked: Rise of the New Jack Sound, in October. Several terrestrial radio stations have also come forth with new music-related podcast programming, such as iHeartRadiosSpeed of Soundand NPRsLouder Than A Riot. Elsewhere, artists likeSylvan EssoandPharrell Williamshave launched their own independent podcast projects topromotetheir brands and/or back catalogs, whileSong Exploders adaptation deal with Netflix could pave the way for more multimedia adaptations of music podcasts in the future.

What does this all mean for the future of podcasts specifically and audio generally? Unlike what some others haveargued, I dont think podcasts will threaten the growth of the music industry. My earlier discussion above suggests that Spotify envisions a future where music and podcasts coexist, and lead themselves to new, dynamic forms of cultural discovery and engagement. That said, the music industry already seems to be an afterthought in Spotifys wider business-development priorities. In arecent interview with Recode, Gimlets head of content Lydia Polgreen explicitly said that Spotifys goal is to get people into the habit of listening to content on Spotify thats not music.

As audio streaming subscription revenue continues to grow around the world, podcasts will simply become one piece in the wider chess game of inter-platform competition for user acquisition and retention. In this landscape, we can expect podcast producers to encounter many of the same problems with streaming services that music artists have faced before. For instance, theres a tension between Spotifys rather old-school model of inking multimillion-dollar content deals with celebrities, and the companys ruthless pursuit of subscriber growth and algorithmic personalization for the individual listener. In the latter scenario, the platform not only sets the context, but is also first in line for listener allegiance. As Liz Pelly recentlywrotefor The Baffler, playlists are designed to create and condition dedicated fans of Spotify products, not artists or podcasters. Joe Budden had a similar sentiment when heannouncedhis podcast would no longer be a Spotify exclusive: Spotify never cared about this podcast individually Spotify only cared about our contribution to the platform.

Last but not least, theres the issue of rights and control. When the hosts ofBuzzFeeds Another Round and Gimlets The Nod(the latter of which has recentlybeen discontinued) revealed in June that they owned none of the shows they led, I couldnt help but think that those deals felt similarly skewed and exploitative totraditional major-label deals with musicians.

The big question on many peoples minds seems to be: Can a publicly-traded company like Spotify really take a traditional Hollywood approach to original podcast development, and spend $1 billion on creating a closed, fully controlled and verticalized podcast distribution ecosystem, in the same breath that it purports to be empowering the next generation of independent creators?

Listening notes for the top shows, from Vulture's critic Nick Quah.

More here:

Coronavirus, Consolidation, and Collective Bargaining: The Year in Podcasting - Vulture

Its come about through an alliance of the worlds largest youth movements and organizations, together with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Foundation.

The Global Youth Mobilization for Generation Disrupted is being led by the so-called Big 6 youth organizations (Young Mens Christian Association, YMCA; World Young Womens Christian Association, YWCA; World Organization of the Scout Movement; World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC; and The Duke of Edinburghs International Award), which collectively includes some 250 million young people, and aims to support young people to come up with ways of mitigating the ravages of COVID-19 worldwide.

The initiative will feature heavily at the upcomingGlobal Youth Summitin April 2021, powered in part by some $5 million from the WHO and UN Foundation-generated COVID Solidarity Response Fund to support local and national youth organizations, including grants for youth-led solutions and an accelerator programme to scale up existing response efforts.

WHOs leadership, the Big 6 and youth organizations around the world, are calling on governments, businesses and policy makers to back the Global Youth Mobilization effort and commit to investing in the future of young people.

These measures will directly support young people engaged at the grassroots level to tackle some of the most pressing health and societal challenges resulting from the pandemic, said the UN health agency.WHO is honoured to join this truly exciting andpowerful global movement to mobilize and empower youth worldwide to be the driving force of the recovery to COVID-19, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Joining forces with the Big 6 and the United Nations Foundation provides WHO and the world a unique opportunity to learn from hundreds of millions of young people and be guided by their sustainable solutions to help communities build back better from the pandemic.

While the direct health impacts of the pandemic on young people have been generally less severe, they are being disproportionately affected by the longer-lasting consequences of the pandemic.

This includes disruption to education, economic uncertainty, loss or lack of employment opportunities, impacts on physical and mental health, and trauma from domestic violence.

Significant mental anxiety, for example, brought on by COVID-19 has been identified in nearly 90 per cent of young people; more than a billion students in almost every country have been impacted by school closures; and one in six young people worldwide have lost their jobs.

But at the same time, young people are also driving change and implementing solutions in response to COVID-19 by taking action through community-based interventions and voluntary service, such as taking on a first responder role by delivering food and supplies to those in need.

The Global Youth Mobilization will draw attention to the urgent need for solutions to support young people, and to highlight the critical leadership role young people are playing in their communities to counter the effects of the pandemic.

We are proud to team up with the WHO to provide opportunities and funding to help millions of young people across the globe to respond to local challenges related to COVID-19 in their communities, said the leadership of the Big 6 in a joint statement.

The mobilization will provide direct financial and programmatic support to youth organizations at the national and international level.We believe that young people have the solutions to solve their own problems, and by providing a global youth platform, combined with national activation for youth projects, we can unleash the skills, enthusiasm and desire for young people to be a force for good in their communities.

Continued here:

'Generation disrupted' lays out plan to take on coronavirus through major youth mobilization - UN News

Vaccines wont end this pandemic. Vaccination will.

Scrambling five letters at the end of a word is far more than semantics, say experts like Immunize Colorados Stephanie Wasserman. The seemingly magical public health power of a highly effective vaccine dissipates immediately if too many people refuse to actually take the vaccine.

Colorado needs to get to a 70% COVID-19 vaccination rate to achieve the herd immunity that protects those who are unable or refuse to get it, and should shoot for closer to 80%, medical experts said. That goal is up against poll responses where the idea of taking the vaccine is so far rejected by 44% of Colorado Hispanics, 48% of Blacks, 50% of those without a college degree and 58% who self-identify as Republican, far lower than Democrats, according to Healthier Colorado.

MORE: A huge number of Coloradans already say they wont get a coronavirus vaccine. Will politics make it worse?

The states other beginning benchmarks are equally ominous: Colorado has the worst rates of school-age vaccinations for measles in the entire country, and has slipped far down the list of other age-appropriate childhood vaccinations.

Now, with tens of thousands of vaccine doses in transit to Colorado from Pfizer and Moderna, and hundreds of thousands more following quickly, state and local health leaders are turning to the increasingly hard work of convincing people steeped in skeptical and often caustic social media.

Yes its as safe as we can get it, is what Parker family physician Dr. Oswaldo Grenardo will tell his patients. Grenardo, who is biracial, co-chairs the Colorado Vaccine Equity Task Force and says he will tell all patients of color that he will take the vaccine and they should, too.

For some, he said, that still wont be enough. For some, there will need to be a leap of faith.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has a $1 million federally-financed budget for official marketing of the coronavirus vaccine. The state did not have comparable marketing figures available for the annual flu vaccine campaigns.

Dr. Eric France, the states chief medical officer, said the money will be spent on social media campaigns, shareable graphics and messaging, and press events amplifying trusted voices. Authorities will also seek big-media donations of public service announcements to further leverage the budget.

France, though, said he is frustrated by the media focusing on worries about vaccine hesitancy, instead of the more than 60% of Americans overall who say they will seek vaccination. That alone will get public health most of the way to a level needed to beat back the pandemic, France said, and the very presence of new COVID-19 stories at the top of the media menu every day serves as the best advertising to any remaining skeptics.

The latest from the coronavirus outbreak in Colorado:

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Theres been a lot of conversations around hesitancy, and to my dismay we focus a lot on this, France said. It misses the point. Six out of 10 or 7 out of 10 Coloradans are ready to receive it. Historically we find that when a doctor recommends a vaccination, close to 70% say yes, I want it.

With nearly everyone personally knowing someone who has had coronavirus by now, those acceptance numbers should be even higher, France said.

Of the rest, France said, about 20% have more questions, but are open to a vaccine once they get answers directly from a medical provider. And theres always a small group, 5% to 7%, that are anti-vaccine, and they have loud voices.

Groups like the equity task force likely have months more to perfect their rollout effort for the general public. The state last week released its priority list for the first batches of tens of thousands of coronavirus vaccine doses arriving now. First priority goes to direct health care providers and residents and staff of skilled nursing facilities. In the second wave of deliveries, as winter turns to spring, priority goes to first responders, health care workers not directly involved with COVID-19 cases, school personnel and people 65 or older.

In the final tier, currently predicted for late spring and early summer, vaccines would go to everyone else.

MORE: It could take up to a year before every Coloradan who wants a coronavirus vaccine can get one

State health and local medical providers say their research and experience has shown that for many groups with good reason to be skeptical about new treatments, direct recommendations from providers, religious leaders and school officials are most persuasive.

Theres more than one kind of authority that can boost confidence in medicine, Gov. Jared Polis said last week during a press conference. We understand its not necessarily the governor who can do that, its faith leaders and community leaders who can do that.

From the start, they will be facing literal and metaphorical congregations feeling let down by a long history of medical inequity and the more recent crush of the pandemic.

The portion of U.S. 2-year-olds with all recommended vaccines runs at 69.6% for white children, but 63.5% for Black children, and only 61% of Native American children, according to Immunize Colorado. In the 2015 flu season, 75.1% of whites 65 and older received the annual flu vaccine, but just 64.3% of Blacks.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases strike far harder at minority groups in Colorado. Black patients make up 14% of Coloradans hospitalized for the virus though they are only 4.6% of the overall population. Latino patients are 38% of those hospitalized, while their share of the population is 22%.

Distrust is deep, Colorado leaders said, stemming from past shocking revelations about withholding of treatment from Black patients, known as the Tuskegee Experiments, to present-day reality that its disproportionately lower income people of color who have to go to work and face virus exposure.

In the Black community alone, theres a deep and horrific history of experimentation and injustice, said Jake Williams, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Healthier Colorado, which commissioned the poll on vaccine acceptance.

Ean Tafoya, an environmental field advocate and treasurer of Colorado Latino Forum, said he checked in last week with 10 acquaintances about their vaccine opinions.

I called a friend whos a paramedic for Denver Health, hes Latino, Tafoya said. He said, Ill agree to it, but Im scared about it because it was rushed through, and ultimately you feel like a guinea pig. But for me, if I see someone like that take it, thats going to help us get there.

The credibility of Polis and other state leaders has also been damaged, Tafoya said, by the fast-changing position of incarcerated and other confined residents on the vaccine priority list. Minority groups in Colorado are well aware they are hugely overrepresented in prison, for example, he said. Multiple outbreaks have hit Colorado prison and jail facilities.

MORE: Contact tracing in Colorado immigrant communities is most effective with voices from within

The governor at first appeared to reject his own health departments placing prisoners high on the priority list. When enough people protested, Polis said prisoners would be vaccinated in the same priority as their other demographic characteristics indicate, by age or underlying condition. There is inherent distrust of doctors in incarceration, Tafoya said.

Were seeing a government that says at times we should follow science, and other times telling us to not follow science, Tafoya said. Then Mayor Michael Hancock is revealed to be sending stay safe at home messages while waiting to board a plane to go visit his family out of state.

That kind of mixed message is difficult for us.

MORE: Which Coloradans should receive the coronavirus vaccine first? The answer depends on who you ask.

Tafoya said many Latinos would be more willing after Polis assurances last week that the state would not share any personal data collected during vaccinations with federal authorities, like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Grenardo said that long before coronavirus came along, patients of color would periodically bring up discriminatory medical practices like the Tuskegee experiments or government-sponsored sterilization of the mentally ill. Patients of all backgrounds, meanwhile, have already asked how the COVID-19 vaccines can be safe if theyve been developed so quickly, and some have echoed social media misinformation in asking whether the virus itself is even real.

While statewide task forces develop messages for broadcasting, Grenardo said, he and other medical providers will do what theyve found most effective with other recent vaccines like shingles, pneumonia, hepatitis A or HPV: individual conversations.

I hope they can then say, yes theyve heard it from a trusted source, this is my doctor, Ive trusted him before, so Ill follow through, Grenardo said. He acknowledged that can be taxing for any medical practice. To have those conversations takes a while. It takes effort. It takes a lot of time, effort and energy, he said.

What the state will tell providers, France said, is that experience has shown even the way those one-on-one conversations take place can make a big difference in acceptance. Public health researchers say its far more effective when a provider says, Heres what were going to do today, were going to give you the vaccine, do you have any questions? rather than, How are you feeling about vaccines today? France said.

Presuming people will accept it goes a long way toward actual acceptance, he said. A common response among patients is to ask, Is it safe? France added. In that case, the best answers mention other vaccines they already presume to be safe, such as chicken pox or measles.

We do it to protect ourselves and protect our loved ones, France coaches other providers to say, while using language about how its similar to others we know and understand.

The public may assume vaccination adoption is a slam-dunk in the health care settings where providers and staff will have first priority, said Dr. Sean OLeary, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Childrens Hospital Colorado and professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. But health center leaders are just as consciously planning internal vaccination campaigns, and will showcase persuasion tools theyve found most effective.

Within the hospital it can get down to personalities being effective, OLeary said. Our CEO is very popular, our chief medical officer is very well known, some of us in infectious diseases and nurse leadership are well known in the hospital, he said. Hes encouraged by how high the interest is already.

I gave grand rounds on the vaccine last Friday, and I was told it was the most heavily attended grand rounds weve ever had, he said.

So far, there has not been talk of requiring all health workers to get the new vaccine. Colorado was one of the first states to require all health facility workers to get the annual flu vaccine, in 2012, but such blanket decisions take a long time for consensus and need consensus on the state board of health. Health facilities and other employers have the right on their own to require vaccines for continued employment, with exceptions for disabilities or contraindications.

Nor does it appear yet there will be a renewed push to add the coronavirus vaccine to tighter restrictions on exemptions sought by families with school-age children. Some states will seek to make the new vaccine part of the required vaccinations list for school attendance a New York legislator has already introduced a bill to mandate the vaccine for various groups if the inoculation rate falls short of public health goals.

New York and other states have also tightened up requirements to receive school vaccination exemptions in response to recent measles outbreaks.

The Colorado Legislature passed a bill requiring families who want an exemption to get a doctors signature on a form, or to complete an online vaccine education program currently being designed by state health officials. Asked last week about further restrictions, Polis did not call for new measures.

France said he believes there is more to learn about the efficacy of school vaccine requirements. Its true, he said, that public health studies show with previous vaccines such as flu and the pneumococcal vaccine for pneumonia that when more children get shots, their elderly relatives and teachers catch fewer cases. Coronavirus appears different, though.

Whats unique about COVID is kids dont seem to catch it or spread it, so we dont necessarily need to vaccinate all these kids to protect adults, France said. Public agencies are still testing vaccine safety and efficacy on children under 16, and whether epidemiology shows younger children can spread the virus even if they dont develop significant cases.So theres science to learn still about kids and vaccination value in children.

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Now that the coronavirus vaccine is here, public health agencies must convince Coloradans to take it - The Colorado Sun

The care home committed an "error in judgment" in allowing the visit, the municipality of Mol in the Flanders region said in a statement Saturday.

"In-depth scientific research" would be needed to definitively say whether the visit was the cause of an outbreak at the Hemelrijck care home, the municipality said, adding that 61 residents and 14 staff members have tested positive so far.

One resident who was already receiving palliative care has died, and another resident with severe symptoms is being given oxygen therapy inside the care home, the municipality said. The "vast majority" of those infected are doing well and not showing symptoms, it added.

The man who played Sinterklaas, who is the son of a resident, tested positive for coronavirus after his visit.

He "was not feeling sick at the time of the visit" and "the activity was not cleared beforehand with the crisis center, otherwise negative advice would have been given," the municipality said.

CNN has reached out to the care home's operator, Armonea, for comment.

"Contrary to reports in the media, St. Nicholas did not visit every room. The management reassures us that the saint only visited common areas, including the seating areas," the municipality said.

"The saint maintained distance at all times from the residents, and didn't remain in any area longer than a few minutes. The saint did not hand out presents."

Belgium has been hit hard by the pandemic. The nation of 11.5 million has recorded 608,137 coronavirus cases and 17.951 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

At the end of October, pressure on the health service was so great that health workers in some hospitals in Lige, Belgium's third largest city, were asked to continue working even if they tested positive for Covid-19 -- as long as they were not showing any symptoms of the disease.

Excerpt from:

Visit from Santa may have infected 75 with coronavirus at Belgian care home - CNN

1 in 5 in San Bernardino County had positive coronavirus tests after Thanksgiving  San Bernardino County Sun

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1 in 5 in San Bernardino County had positive coronavirus tests after Thanksgiving - San Bernardino County Sun

The largest Alaska outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic so far is unfolding right now, within the walls of a prison in the Mat-Su Borough. At Goose Creek Correctional Center, 708 inmates had active coronavirus infections as of Monday.

Other jails face worsening outbreaks, too: 112 inmates at the Anchorage Correctional Complex and 68 in Yukon-Kuskokwim Correctional Center have the virus. Statewide, 19 incarcerated people have been hospitalized during the pandemic. Three have died.

With a limited supply of vaccines now arriving, a debate over when incarcerated people should receive the vaccine is playing out across the country -- and in Alaska. The question: Should prisoners be seen as a vulnerable population living in a congregate setting and given priority access to the vaccine?

In November, the American Medical Association called for people in jails and prisons to be prioritized for vaccination. Prisoners are at high-risk of contracting COVID-19 because the disease has spread so quickly in densely populated facilities, with devastating effects. At least 249,883 prisoners have been infected and 1,657 have died of COVID-19 in U.S. correctional facilities, according to The Marshall Project.

Being incarcerated or detained should not be synonymous with being left totally vulnerable to COVID-19, the medical association said.

Some states, such as Massachusetts, have made prisoners among the first to receive vaccines, prioritizing them alongside other people living in congregate settings, such as homeless shelters.

Groups such as the ACLU of Alaska have taken the position that prisoners should be prioritized for vaccines because they live in congregate settings with limited medical resources.

In the most favorable of circumstances, our prisons have a hard time maintaining health and sanitation standards, said Megan Edge, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of Alaska. Its a breeding ground.

According to the advocacy group Prison Policy Initiative, Alaska is one of 10 states where vaccination rollout plans are so far silent on when incarcerated people will be offered vaccines. Alaska hasnt made a decision yet about where incarcerated people will fall on the vaccine rollout plan, said Sarah Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.

This has not yet been determined, Gallagher said.

The idea of prioritizing prisoners while limited vaccine supplies exist has been politically unpalatable to some leaders nationally. In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis told reporters that inmates shouldnt receive priority for vaccines.

Theres no way (the vaccine is) going to go to prisoners before it goes to people who havent committed any crime. Thats obvious, he said.

(A substantial proportion of incarcerated Alaskans are detained pre-trial, meaning they have been charged with a crime but not yet convicted.)

Gov. Mike Dunleavy did not respond to a request for comment about vaccination prioritization.

While the states plan isnt finalized yet, correctional officers and prison medical staff are considered first responders and will be prioritized with other first responders around the state, Gallagher said. As of Dec. 9, some 149 people who work in correctional facilities across the state have tested positive for COVID-19. That includes correctional officers as well as other workers.

And some of medically compromised prisoners living in hospital-level medical housing units will also get first crack at the vaccine. Staff and residents of prison medical infirmaries, along with front-line health care workers, emergency responders and long-term care resident facilities and staff will be among the first Alaskans to be offered vaccination, the Department of Health and Social Services said Monday.

People in infirmary and high risk people within the prison system are considered the equivalent to long term care facility as well as the staff who treat them, said state chief medical Dr. Anne Zink in a media call Monday.

Mark Carr is a regional ethicist for Providence Health & Services Alaska, and a member of a statewide task force making decisions about which populations will be given access to limited coronavirus vaccine supply, in which order.

The committee is very robust, its broad minded, its well represented, with persons and agencies all across the state, Carr said.

Public health is guided by a philosophy that makes decisions based on a utilitarian analysis, he said: Where the vaccine has the potential to make the biggest positive impact. Thats why essential health workers, crucial to the entire system of providing medical care, are first in line.

In response to a pandemic, (public health experts) are going to focus attention on instrumental value of persons in the society it has nothing to say about the moral value of a person, but whether or not a person is essential to the functioning of society, Carr said.

Vaccine allocation decisions have to be neutral, objective and data driven, by science, he said. On the other hand, deciding who gets a lifesaving vaccine first is an inherently political venture. Its not as if you can take the human out of it.

Theres several ways to analyze the question of when prisoners should be vaccinated, Carr said, speaking in general as a medical ethicist and not specifically about Alaskas plans.

In one version of that theoretical calculus, people in prisons arent essential workers in any way, and therefore should be lower priority. In that argument, those people, as dignified and valuable as we may want to assert they are, are not instrumental to the functioning of our society and therefore should fall in a lower tier of the rollout of the vaccine, he said. They are not going to keep food being delivered to grocery stores, planes in the air, fuel in vehicles, and so on and so forth.

Another approach could revolve around the notion that prisoners live in a dense congregate housing and should be prioritized as should people living in other dense housing say, the Begich Towers in Whittier, Carr said. In that analysis, you get a lot of bang for your buck by vaccinating people in big facilities, because vaccinating people could prevent a lot of disease spread.

Both approaches are focused on the consequences for our actions. A duty perspective might focus on vulnerability -- in the United Kingdom, the government is highlighting giving vaccine to the oldest among us, as a duty to protect, he said.

Carr declined to talk about the specifics of what the committee is discussing. But how to deal with incarcerated people is a topic of conversation.

We would be negligent not to, he said.

No matter where prisoners fall on the priority spectrum, DOC officials will face additional challenges in stemming outbreaks within facilities. Logistical complications to vaccinating in prisons could include the transiency of inmates, who cycle through jails and prisons for highly variable timeframes -- an extra big problem with a two-dose immunization. And theres also the question of whether inmates will choose to take a vaccine, if offered by their jailers.

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The biggest coronavirus outbreak in Alaska is unfolding in a prison. Will the incarcerated be prioritized for vaccines? - Anchorage Daily News

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now passed 72.8 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 1.62 million.

Japan's economy won't return to pre-pandemic levels until at least early 2022, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

Jet fuel market profits have increased, thanks to increasing air cargo demand, gradually recovering passenger traffic and hopes that a COVID-19 vaccine will boost international travel next year.

A cautious takeoff?

Image: Reuters

Airlines are being warned to take extra care when reactivating planes left in extended storage as a result of the pandemic - with pilot rustiness, maintenance errors and even insect nests all cause for concern.

Moderna has said that some documents, related to pre-submission talks of its COVID-19 vaccine, were accessed in a cyberattack on the European Medicines Agency.

Sweden was close to an all-time high yesterday for the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospital.

Spain expects to start vaccinating people against the coronavirus by 4 or 5 of January, if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives the green light to a vaccine on 29 December, health minister Salvador Illa said on Monday.

Czech restaurants, hotels and indoor sports venues will close again on Friday, just two weeks after reopening. The measures have been taken as a result of rising cases.

The UK's capital, London, and some surrounding parts of the southeast of England will be put under stricter COVID-19 restrictions from Wednesday.

Announcing the new restrictions, Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said over 1,000 cases of a new coronavirus variant had been identified in the past few days in England. He said it was growing faster than the existing variants, but was "highly unlikely" it wouldn't respond to a vaccine.

In 2000, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance was launched at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, with an initial pledge of $750 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The aim of Gavi is to make vaccines more accessible and affordable for all - wherever people live in the world.

Along with saving an estimated 10 million lives worldwide in less than 20 years,through the vaccination of nearly 700 million children, - Gavi has most recently ensured a life-saving vaccine for Ebola.

At Davos 2016, we announced Gavi's partnership with Merck to make the life-saving Ebola vaccine a reality.

The Ebola vaccine is the result of years of energy and commitment from Merck; the generosity of Canadas federal government; leadership by WHO; strong support to test the vaccine from both NGOs such as MSF and the countries affected by the West Africa outbreak; and the rapid response and dedication of the DRC Minister of Health. Without these efforts, it is unlikely this vaccine would be available for several years, if at all.

Read more about the Vaccine Alliance, and how you can contribute to the improvement of access to vaccines globally - in our Impact Story.

2. US and Canada begin inoculations

An intensive care unit nurse in New York City yesterday became the first person in the United States to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

It didnt feel any different from taking any other vaccine, Sandra Lindsay said. I feel hopeful today, relieved. I feel like healing is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history."

It comes as the virus's death toll in the United States passed 300,000 - nearly 120,000 more than any other country in the world.

US deaths have passed 300,000.

Image: Our World in Data

Canada also began its innoculation programme yesterday. Frontline healthcare workers and elderly nursing home residents were among the first to receive the jab.

3. Netherlands to enter new lockdown

Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, has announced that the Netherlands will go into a second lockdown. Schools and shops will close until 19 January.

The Netherlands is closing down, he said to the sound of protesters banging pots and pans outside his office in The Hague. We realise the gravity of our decisions, right before Christmas.

Gatherings are also limited to no more than two people. An exception will be made for three days across the Christmas period, when three adult visitors will be permitted.

Residents were advised to stay at home, not to travel to work and to avoid contact with other people as much as possible.

The less contacts we have, the better. We have to do everything to get to a better place. And yes, it will get better.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 15 December - World Economic Forum

Eventually he was directed to an emergency room in his city, which was expecting him. He was given an infusion of the drug on Monday. He is feeling much better, he said.

Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Christie, a longtime friend of his and former New Jersey governor, got the antibodies before they were approved by the F.D.A. Dr. Caplan, the medical ethicist, said he had no problem with Mr. Trump, 74, getting the therapy he is, after all, the president, a special person unto him- or herself.

But Mr. Christies access appeared to be extraordinary. Mr. Christie, 58, was offered participation in a Regeneron clinical trial but turned it down, a person familiar with his treatment said, fearing he might receive a placebo. Instead, he received the Eli Lilly treatment. He is overweight and has asthma, and thus may have been a good candidate, Dr. Caplan said, though he wondered if similarly situated patients would have gotten the drug.

Dr. Carson, 69, got the Regeneron cocktail after it was approved, then took to Facebook last month to say he was desperately ill with the coronavirus until the president intervened.

President Trump was following my condition and cleared me for the monoclonal antibody therapy that he had previously received, which I am convinced saved my life, he wrote, adding that we must prioritize getting comparable treatments and care to everyone as soon as possible.

Mr. Giulianis treatment is less clear. Calling into ABC Radio from his hospital bed on Tuesday, he said specifically that he had received two drugs remdesivir, which has F.D.A. approval for treatment of Covid-19, and dexamethasone, a steroid.

But he also said he had received the same treatment cocktail as the president: Exactly the same, his doctor sent me here; he talked me into it, Mr. Giuliani said of Mr. Trumps physician, adding, The minute I took the cocktail yesterday, I felt 100 percent better. It works very quickly, wow.

More here:

Trump and Friends Got Coronavirus Care Many Others Couldnt - The New York Times