Category: Covid-19 Vaccine

Posted: Dec 2, 2020 / 05:26 AM HST / Updated: Dec 2, 2020 / 05:58 AM HST

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(NEXSTAR) A 14-member advisory panel voted Tuesday on who should get the COVID-19 vaccine first.

Dr. Kathleen Dooling, a member of the committee advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the first doses will go to healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents.

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CORONAVIRUS RELIEF COMPROMISE UNVEILED: A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced its own coronavirus relief plan Tuesday with a promise that Congress will not leave for Christmas until a compromise is reached.

The $908 billion package includes $288 billion for small businesses, $180 billion in additional unemployment insurance, and $160 billion for state and local governments. It also has funding for schools, transportation, health care, and student loan and housing assistance.

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NATIONWIDE NURSING SHORTAGE: Its been an impossibly grueling year for the countrys healthcare workers. American hospitals are experiencing a shortage of nurses during the pandemic for a wide variety of reasons, and hospital systems across the country are now competing to get them back to work.

While the government currently has no concrete numbers on what the shortage truly looks like, anecdotal evidence straight from the source points to the severity of the need.

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MAN WITH COVID-19 RECEIVES HELP FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY: A Louisiana man battling COVID-19 received help from across the country.

It all started with a post from his brother-in-law.

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Weekdays at 10:30 a.m. CST/11:30 a.m. EST, Newsfeed Now will be streaming the top stories in the U.S. utilizing our newsrooms across the country. If you miss the live report, youll be able to see a replay minutes after the stream ends.

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Newsfeed Now: Who will get first COVID-19 vaccines; La. COVID patient receives help from across the country - KHON2

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) The nations Secretary of Health and Human Services says people could be getting coronavirus vaccines before Christmas.

With hospitalizations hitting an all-time high nationwide, theres a fight to receive the vaccination first.

KDKAs Meghan Schiller talked to firefighters and paramedics as well as the staff and residents in nursing homes who say if were trying to get the pandemic under control, we should prioritize them first for the vaccine.

The race for a vaccine could cross the finish line before Christmas with Moderna announcing Monday it will now seek emergency use authorization from the FDA.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Healths coronavirus distribution plan, there will be three phases of distribution and administration. The first to get it will be the critical population people like healthcare workers, non-healthcare essential workers, those 65 years and older and residents in congregate care settings.

Once theres a large number of doses available, critical populations not yet vaccinated and the general population will get vaccinated. Once theres a sufficient supply of doses, the entire population will get vaccinated.

We think and believe strongly that firefighters and paramedics should have the same priority access, that-top tier access to the COVID vaccine, once it comes out, said Douglas Stern with the International Association of Fire Fighters, vouching for firefighters and paramedics.

Were protecting people from the medical aspect but were doing it in an uncontrolled environment, often times in peoples homes where if somebody has COVID, theyve been at home for a while, the virus is on every surface.

The International Association of Fire Fighters wrote a letter to governors across the nation asking for priority access. COVID-19 killed 20 members of the IAFF over the past 8 months.

Unfortunately, weve had almost 17,000 firefighters who have been quarantined or isolated due to exposure from COVID and almost 4,000 who have tested positive to the virus, he said.

At our local nursing homes, its a daily fight to lock out the virus. The Haven at North Hills reports no current cases. Still, the facility is among the first to enroll in the CDCs National COVID-19 Vaccine Program.

I was very excited; my wife was very excited when we heard that the Haven at North Hills was in the first group of people that would be able to get the vaccine, said Haven at North Hills family member Dr. Rob Potter.

Dr. Potter says his mother-in-law is 101 years old, an age that he says earns her priority access.

They are people that are very susceptible, the elderly population with underlying medical problems, so its great that they are on the top of the list, he said.

The CDC will partner with CVS and Walgreens to provide free on-site vaccination clinics as soon as the vaccine can ship out.

So once we get the green light, they will give the Haven at North Hills a call, they will schedule the time to arrive, they will come out for the dose and well be on our way to welcoming families and have a big reunion, said Haven at North Hills Executive Director Jennifer Gross.

The Health and Human Services Secretary Monday said the FDA will look at Pfizers vaccine on Dec. 10. It could receive approval within days of that meeting.

Modernas hearing is scheduled for Dec. 17. Meaning, if the FDA deems these vaccines safe, we could receive a vaccine for Christmas.

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Firefighters And Nursing Homes Fighting To Get COVID-19 Vaccine First - CBS Pittsburgh

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said schools are some of the safest places in the city while explaining his decision to reopen public elementary schools and resumein-person classes.

That3% standard, after we had so muchexperience with the schools,proved to be different than wethought it would be, he added, saying that the model needs to be more sustainable for until there is a coronavirus vaccine. We decided we need a lot moretesting and to make that [available] inevery school.

Students in 3K, Pre-K and grades K-5 can resume in-person classes on Dec. 7 and the city will address when middle and high schoolers can return to in-person classes in the future.

There will be weekly testing in every school, and students will need to be tested and get a consent form to come, de Blasio said about the reopening directives put in place.

The current testing capacity only allows the city to bring back elementary school students. Over time, the city will also bring back middle and high school students, de Blasio said.

In case a student tests positive for Covid-19, the entire classroom will quarantine, he added.

[If] there's multiple cases in theschool, theres a careful investigationto determine whether the schoolonly needs a temporary shutdownor full two-week quarantine," he said Monday. "That has worked and it's allowedus to keep the vast majority ofour schools open the vastmajority of the time. But its also givenus the ability to pinpoint whenthere's a problem and address itquickly through our test andtrace corps.

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The latest on the coronavirus pandemic: Live updates - CNN International

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D.C.'s Initial COVID-19 Vaccine Allotment Might Only Cover 1/10th Of Health Workers - DCist

Its a fundamental tenet of public health to try and stop epidemics at their source, he added.

One approach, under consideration by the National Commission on Covid-19 and Criminal Justice, would be to prioritize vaccination only for prisoners and detainees whose medical conditions or advanced age put them at great risk should they become ill.

This isnt a criminal justice recommendation, said Khalil Cumberbatch, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan group focused on criminal justice policy. Its a public health recommendation. The virus is not in a vacuum if its in a state prison.

The United States holds some 2.3 million individuals in prisons, jails and other detention centers, incarcerating more people per capita than any other nation. That includes nearly 500,000 people who have not been convicted of a crime and are awaiting trials, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. (Some jails have taken steps to reduce overcrowding since the pandemic started.)

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The figure also includes some 44,000 youngsters who are held in juvenile facilities and an estimated 42,000 in immigration detention centers.

People held in confinement are uniquely vulnerable to the virus. Incarcerated individuals are four times more likely to become infected than people in the general population, according to a study by the criminal justice commission. Over all, Covid-19 mortality rates among prisoners are higher than in the general population.

So far, at least 200,000 inmates have already been infected with Covid-19, and at least 1,450 inmates and correctional officers have died from the virus, according to a database maintained by The New York Times.

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Those numbers most likely underestimate the magnitude of the problem, because reporting requirements are spotty and vary from state to state, said Dr. Tom Inglesby, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and another co-author of the vaccine allocation report.

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Prisons Are Covid-19 Hotbeds. When Should Inmates Get the Vaccine? - The New York Times

Pascal Soriot spent the long Thanksgiving weekend digging AstraZeneca out of a hole, promising to put an end to the questions around its interim Phase III vaccine data by conducting a new study while going to regulators with a large part of what it already has.

AstraZeneca and its partners at Oxford had initially touted high-level results from two studies conducted in the UK and Brazil as positive. But the enthusiasm was soon shadowed by confusion as observers probed into how the highest, 90% efficacy was seen in a dosing regimen given to a small group of volunteers due to an error. Among a larger cohort given the intended shots, the vaccine was only 62% effective, a rate that wouldve been respectable had Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna not posted efficacy rates of 94%, 95% for their mRNA candidates. And many werent sure what to make of the average 70% number that AstraZeneca ran in headlines.

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UPDATED: Moderna calibrates final Covid-19 vaccine efficacy at 94.1% and today it's gunning for the EUA - Endpoints News

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) - Monday, November 30, 2020, Governer Michelle Lujan Grisham introduced a new policy to transition county-by-county reopening levels to a tiered system: red, yellow, and green. The county-by-county status map will be updated every two weeks beginning December 2, 2020.

According to the Governor, when a county moves to a less restrictive level, it may begin operation at that level immediately upon the map's update. If a county moves back to a more restrictive level, it will start operating at that level restriction within 48 hours after the map's update.

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KRQE Poll: Will you take the COVID-19 Vaccine? - KRQE News 13

With national experts finalizing their recommendations of who gets the first COVID-19 vaccines, physicians and community leaders on the Massachusetts COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group see frontline health care workers, first responders and older adults in congregate housing and with underlying health conditions as some of the first recipients.

Frontline health care workers who come into contact with COVID-19 patients and residents of long-term care facilities get the top priority, said Dr. Asif Merchant, a chief of geriatrics at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and a member of the group. He notes health care workers do not only include hospital staff, but also employees in nursing homes and those working in private homes as health aides.

The advisory group is also looking at emergency room staff, Emergency Medical Services personnel, residents age 65 or older and those with underlying medical conditions that increase their risk of falling severely ill due to COVID-19, based on recent recommendations that have come out from the National Academy of Medicine and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on vaccine distribution to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Were trying to reconcile with some of that, too, matching that up with the priorities that we created, said Merchant, who serves as the medical director of four nursing homes in the MetroWest area.

Pfizer and BioNTech asked the federal government for emergency use authorization from the Food and Druvg Administration after the company said the candidate was 95% effective during Phase 3 clinical trials.

Moncef Slaoui, the head of the White Houses Warp Speed vaccination development operation told ABC News This Week that Moderna will also seek emergency use authorization from the FDA. Moderna announced earlier this month its trials had seen a 94.5% success rate.

Officials say the vaccine could become available as soon as December, but that those at the top of the list would get first priority.

ACIP members outlined in a meeting this week who should get priority for Phase 1 of the vaccine distribution.

The ACIP recommended health care workers on the front lines and residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities get the vaccine first, followed by essential workers, followed by adults aged 65 or older and those with underlying medical conditions that make them high-risk for falling ill due to COVID-19.

Including essential workers in the first phase not only preserves key services, but also could address health inequities that could leave out low-income and nonwhite people, according to a presentation delivered by Dr. Kathleen Dooling. Dooling, a CDC medical officer, noted that racial and ethnic minority groups are overrepresented in essential industries and that roughly one-quarter of essential workers live in low-income families.

The National Academy of Medicine made similar recommendations for who should get the first phase of vaccines in the framework released in October. The academys Jumpstart Phase included high-risk health workers, first responders, people of all ages with underlying health conditions that increase their risk of getting sick and older adults living in congregate housing or overcrowded living conditions.

A vaccine could become more publicly available in March or April, Springfield health commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris told community leaders Nov. 23 at a Black Springfield COVID-19 Coalition meeting. She said the local board of health would help distribute the virus locally.

We will set up emergency dispensing sites so that we can vaccinate the general public, but I do not anticipate that happening until February, March and perhaps as late as April, said Caulton-Harris, adding that she had already gotten an idea of what groups get first priority in the state..

Its unclear whether every local board of health in Massachusetts plans to roll out public vaccination like Springfield does. When asked about Springfields plans, Merchant said its too early for the advisory group to coordinate public distribution.

The next challenge, beyond distribution, is convincing people to take the vaccine, even within the health care industry.

Everybody wants a good, effective solution that is also safe, he said. Ive had several CNAs, some nurses express concern saying Im worried about this vaccine.

When Merchant hears hesitance among colleagues, he tells them of his plans to take the vaccine as soon as its available to him.

Immediately after that they say Dr. Merchant is if you take it, Im going to take it, Merchant said. Theres relief when they know someone closely whos a medical professional will be taking it first.

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Who gets first COVID-19 vaccines? Massachusetts officials finalizing who will be first in line - MassLive.com

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that it will be months before school-age children will be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said its important to see how the vaccine performs first with adults before administering it to kids.

Its going to be months. And the reason is traditionally when you have a situation like a new vaccine, you want to make sure, because children as well as pregnant women, are vulnerable, Fauci told NBC anchor Chuck Todd on Meet the Press.

So, before you put it into the children, youre going to want to make sure you have a degree of efficacy and safety that is established in an adult population, particularly an adult, normal population.

Once thats established, then clinical trials can be run to determine whether the vaccine works for children, he said.

The process will involve whats called a bridging study that will look for similar results as the adult trials, Fauci said.

You can say, okay, now we have safety in the children. We have comparable immunogenicity, namely the same type of immune response, Fauci said.

We can get this expeditiously approved for the children before going through a 30,000 person trial that may take a longer period of time.

Fauci also said Sunday that its very likely that adults who have recovered from COVID-19 will be encouraged to take the vaccine.

Since we dont know the durability of protection from someone who has already been infected, how long that protection lasts, it would not be surprising that we would be vaccinating people who have recovered from COVID-19, Fauci said.

He noted that recovered COVID-19 patients were among some of the participants in trials for leading candidates such as Moderna.

When the trials were done, the Moderna trials and other trials, and we looked at the data, there were people who, when you looked at their antibody response, they actually gave indication that they had already been infected and actually recovered quite well, Fauci said.

And at the time of the vaccine study, they were actually well and normal, as it were, and yet they still got vaccinated.

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Fauci says it will be 'months' before children get COVID-19 vaccine - New York Post

Tom Ryan, Boone County Health Dept. emergency preparedness coordinator, said the county expects to receive shipments of COVID-19 vaccines within two weeks.

Health officials expect the vaccines to be given to health care workers and vulnerable populations in Phase 1 of a plan outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health care workers include ER, ICU and CCU employees. Vulnerable populations include people with comorbidities.

On Dec. 10, the Food and Drug Administration will review a COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc., an American pharmaceutical company, and BioNTech SE, a German biotechnology company. The vaccine could be given emergency-use authorization soon after. Shipments will then be sent. Moderna, an American biotechnology company, also announced the FDA will review its vaccine for emergency-use authorization Dec. 17.

Within five days of the approval of the (emergency-use authorization), shipments will start going out to those identified hospitals and other areas, said Ryan, noting Witham Health Services would be among the hospitals.

Phase 1 could last into January, Ryan said. A site for vaccine distributions have not been finalized. Witham Health Services will distribute the vaccine, and Ryan said hospital officials are determining which site to use.

Phase 2 will include inoculating critical populations such as essential government workers, teachers and other essential workers outlined in the CDCs critical infrastructure sectors. The 16 critical infrastructure sectors are listed at cisa.gov/identifying-critical-infrastructure-during-covid-19.

Phase 2 will begin after the completion of Phase 1, but Ryan said it is unknown when that will be. He estimated that mid-February might be the earliest start of Phase 2 in Boone County.

Due to hospital staff shortages, Ryan said the BCHD asks for volunteers willing to help administer vaccines during Phase 1 and especially during Phase 2, when health officials expect more people will need to be vaccinated. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact the BCHD at 765-482-3942.

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COVID-19 vaccines could arrive in Boone County within two weeks Current Publishing - Current in Carmel