Category: Covid-19

Feb. 5, 2021 -- The Biden administration is pushing to make quick at-home tests for COVID-19 available to more Americans.

In a media call on Friday, Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for the pandemic response, told reporters that the administration was working with six companies under the auspices of the Defense Production Actto surge manufacturing of at-home test kits with the goal of, by summer, having millions of Americans being able to access at-home tests.

So far, the plan is short on details. He didnt name the companies or the tests but said more announcements would be coming shortly.

At-home tests are one of the key steps to getting back to normal life, Slavitt said.

While the U.S. waits for vaccines to quench the pandemic, experts believe an important way to control the virus and fully reopen the economy could be to use quick, cheap paper strip tests to find people who could spread COVID-19.

The tests use saliva or a swab from inside the nose, mixed into a bit of solution. Users drop the solution onto a paper strip, much the way home pregnancy tests work.

The tests use proteins embedded in the paper to recognize and grab onto key pieces of the virus. When the virus is found, another indicator -- like a line or a plus sign -- changes color to show the result.

Because the tests latch on to a part of the coronavirus that is not mutating, they should still work well to detect even the new variant forms of the virus.

Regulators have been wary of approving them because they have a higher rate of false negatives, compared to gold-standard PCR tests, which are run in a lab.

Instead, the results are most accurate when a person has a lot of virus circulating in their body, typically a day or two before they start showing symptoms to a few days after getting sick.

While that may make them less reliable for diagnosing a COVID-19 infection in someone who has been sick or carrying the virus for a while, testing experts say that makes them great to use as screening tools -- a way to catch people who are contagious and isolate them before they can spread the virus.

Michael Mina, PhD, an assistant professor at Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an expert in diagnostic testing, has been a vocal proponent of rapid tests to control the spread of the virus. He said he has taken no funding from any testing companies, though he has been talking to many of them about their technologies.

This test is as powerful as it is because it will find you when youre positive. It wont tell you that you were positive 2 weeks ago, like PCR will tell you that you were positive 2 weeks ago, he said, And it will give it to you in a time when it is actionable, in 15 minutes.

Mina says if the tests are cheap enough, people could test themselves before they go to work, two to three times a week, for example, to know when they need to stay home so they dont run the risk of infecting their co-workers. The tests could be used at the entrances of sports arenas, concerts, and airports to help catch people who are contagious and may not know it because they arent showing any symptoms.

He said the strategy many people are trying to use now -- testing themselves a few days before they travel or visit family -- is useless, and I can't say it enough. That is a pointless waste of money, he said in a call with reporters on Friday.

The best thing you can possibly do is test yourself the moment right before youre walking into whatever it is, whether it's work or school or an event or the grocery store, whatever it might be, he said.

The success of a plan like this depends on having many rapid tests and making them cheap enough so people can use them regularly.

Slavitt said the U.S. was on its way to that goal.

In addition to the tests announced on Friday, Slavitt said the U.S. would be working with an Australian company called Ellume to get 8.5 million of their tests to Americans by the end of the year. That test uses a device that connects to a smartphone app to give people test results in about 15 minutes. It can also connect to public health reporting systems to help health authorities track positive cases.

Mina said he doesnt think the Ellume test can be an effective screening tool. For one thing, its price may put it out of reach for regular use. When it was authorized in December, the company said the kit to do the test would cost about $30, which is too expensive for people and businesses to use frequently. Mina said the quantity ordered by the U.S. would only amount to about 3,000 tests a day, not nearly the millions of daily tests the U.S. would need to be using for a while to control the spread of the virus.

Thats nothing, he said. We have wasted money on it.

So far, the FDA has declined to approve other rapid, fully over-the-counter tests for home use, saying their results so far have not been accurate enough to meet the agencys standards for diagnostic tests. Two other tests that deliver results at homehave been approved but they require a prescription.One is being made by a company called Lucira and costs$50. The other is the $25 BinaxNow test, which is made by Abbott.

Mina says that if the rules were more flexible, the FDA could approve several new tests and get them to Americans very quickly.

I don't think that waiting until the summer is good, he said in a call with reporters on Friday. I am encouraged that the administration is making multiple steps right now to try to signal that they are going to be pushing for speedier access to testing, but I think that we have these tests in front of us this moment. We just need to listen to the science a bit more.

WebMD Health News

Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for the pandemic response, Washington, DC.

Michael Mina, PhD, assistant professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA.

White House COVID Response Team Press briefing, Feb. 5, 2021.

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Article: Government Seeking More Rapid COVID-19 Tests - WebMD

Faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences will present a webinar for the Meredith community about vaccine science and COVID-19.

Presenters will be Assistant Professor Carolina Perez-Heydrich, Professor Jason Andrus, and Professor Karthik Aghoram. They will explain the role of vaccines in combating COVID-19, immune responses against coronaviruses, and the development of mRNA vaccines. The presenterswill also discuss the benefits and risks associated with vaccination.

The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Kelsieanne Schmidt, 21, a public health and biology major. Meredith Director of Student Health Services Mary Johnson and Director of Human Resources Pam Galloway will also participate in the panel discussion along with Perez-Heydrich, Andrus, and Aghoram.

There will be two opportunities to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts webinar.

Covid-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts Session 1Tuesday, February 16 at 5:30 p.m.Register in advance for this webinar

Covid-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts Session 2Friday, February 19 at 10 a.m.Register in advance for this webinar

COVID-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts is open to Meredith students, faculty/staff, and alumnae.

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Meredith Webinar to Share Facts about the COVID-19 Vaccine - Meredith College News

Long-term care facilities have some protections when it comes to pandemic-era lawsuits, lawyers say. Many states have passed civil immunity laws that protect businesses from COVID-19-related litigation, except in cases of willful, reckless, intentional or grossly negligent misconduct.

They dont completely get rid of the opportunity for a plaintiff to sue; they just make it a lot harder, Idelevich said. Were seeing creative lawyers try to get around all of these immunity statutes that are coming out from all of the states.

There is also the possibility that plaintiffs who successfully challenge immunity in one state could create a domino effect across the country. It would create enough media buzz around it that I think youd start seeing copycat lawsuits, Idelevich said.

Defense lawyers are also claiming the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, known as the PREP Act, which offers immunity to liability for COVID-19 countermeasures, covers all COVID-19 lawsuits at long-term care facilities, but courts so far have disagreed, Stahle said. In those cases, lawsuits that were sent to federal court were remanded back to state courts.

Its all in flux, she said.

Trying to obtain immunity through the PREP Act puts cases in limbo and delays the process for getting families answers, Richardson said.

Families want to hold the nursing home accountable for what errors and mistakes theyve caused. They also want to know what happened, Richardson said.

Because long-term care facilities have been closed to visitors to prevent the spread of COVID, family members are not able see their loved ones and often arent able to intervene until things seem severe, Stahle said. In Missouri, where Stahle practices, calls to the states elder abuse hotline are down from the previous year.

Never in her career has Stahle seen so many severe lawsuits involving nursing homes than in the past year. Her firm alone is handling fatal cases unrelated to COVID-19 where a resident allegedly drowned in the bathtub, a residents wound became infested with maggots and a resident died from extreme dehydration.

We are seeing neglect like never before, Stahle said. Youre getting these severe cases all at the same time.

The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living and some of its state affiliates have advocated for reasonable, limited liability protections that defend staff and providers for their good faith efforts during this challenging time.

We understand that loved ones are grieving and looking for answers, but this is a vicious virus and an unprecedented public health crisis, AHCA/NCAL said in a prepared statement. Caregivers are doing everything they can, often with limited resources and ever-changing information. Providers or individual healthcare workers who were following government guidance should not be held responsible for their good faith efforts during this once-in-a-century pandemic.

Long term care providers are already facing a financial crisis due to COVID. Compounded with an excessive litigation environment, thousands of long-term care facilities would be forced to close their doors, in turn, displacing tens of thousands of vulnerable residents and limiting access to critical services for our nations seniors.

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Long-term care providers prepare to fend off COVID-19 lawsuits - Modern Healthcare

There is now real evidence that at least one coronavirus variant seems to elude some of the power of Covid-19 vaccines. What, exactly, that means for the pandemic is still being sussed out.

Even if the vaccines are less powerful against the variant, they still appear to protect people from the worst outcomes, like hospitalization or death. But the loss in efficacy against the B.1.351 variant in clinical trials suggested to some experts that the immunity the shots confer may not last as long against that form of the coronavirus. Or that the vaccines wont be as powerful of a drag on transmission, the way scientists hope the shots will be for other versions of the virus.

More urgently, experts said, the disparate results serve as a warning flag that the world needs to step up its current vaccination campaigns and expedite efforts to envision what Covid-19 vaccines 2.0 might look like.

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Its a huge relief to know that the vaccines still seem to protect against hospitalization and deaths, said Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Bern. The No. 1 thing at the moment is to try and reduce in any way the cost that this virus charges us as it spreads through societies. But its definitely true the loss in efficacy, it raises some worrying questions.

Below, STAT lays out the good and the bad news about vaccines and the B.1.351 variant, and what may be coming next.

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Key questions about vaccines sometimes get reduced to whether they work or not against the different forms of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. But that oversimplifies what clinical trials are measuring, what the vaccines might be able to do, and how much of this is a matter of degrees, not a yes-or-no answer.

The trials have generally been investigating whether the vaccines prevent symptomatic cases of Covid-19. But Covid-19 presents across a full spectrum, from asymptomatic infections to fatal ones, which is why some trials also include data specifically focused on the outcomes people most want to prevent: severe disease and death.

In a way, the first clinical trial results from Moderna and the Pfizer and BioNTech team, which both showed the respective vaccines were 90% or more protective against symptomatic disease, spoiled us for what we could expect for immunizations still going through trials. The achievements went way beyond what experts had hoped Covid-19 vaccines could hit.

So when Johnson & Johnson reported last week that its vaccine was, on average, 66% efficacious at blocking moderate and severe disease a figure that ticked up to 72% when just looking at U.S. participants many researchers sought to remind people that this was a result worth celebrating. The vaccine was 85% effective against severe disease cases no matter the infectious variant, and all the deaths and hospitalizations in the trial occurred among people who got the placebo, not the vaccine.

People look at 72% and say well thats not as good as 90%, but the fact is, if you look at serious disease, it was extremely effective in preventing serious disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters this week.

Simply, clinical trial data released last week for the J&J shot and another from Novavax showed the vaccines did not fare as well in South Africa, where the B.1.351 variant first emerged and has circulated at the highest levels.

The efficacy of the J&J shot against moderate or worse Covid-19 fell to 57% in South Africa, while Novavax reported its vaccine was 49% effective in South Africa at preventing symptomatic Covid-19. In a separate trial in the United Kingdom, Novavaxs shot was nearly 90% efficacious. (Another variant on the global radar, B.1.1.7, first emerged in the U.K., and while it is more transmissible, so far it doesnt seem to have as significant of an impact on vaccines.)

Beyond the drop in protection, some experts said the results indicated the vaccines might be less powerful against B.1.351 in other ways, too.

Clinical trials havent shown whether any of the existing vaccines can slow the spread of any iteration of SARS-2, but many experts think the shots will offer some help in that arena, whether because they prevent some infections entirely, or because they make people who still contract the virus less contagious for a shorter time, or some combination of factors.

When you think about vaccines, you think about the direct impacts on the person vaccinated, but you also think about the indirect effects, like what it can do to spread, said evolutionary biologist Katia Koelle of Emory University.

But several experts told STAT the results from Novavax and J&J made them wonder if vaccines will have the same potential benefit on transmission against B.1.351 as they might on other forms. A less potent vaccine, even if it prevents severe disease, may not galvanize the immune system enough to block infection or reduce infectiousness as much.

If everyone is vaccinated, then maybe thats not a big deal, because youve just got a cold going around, Hodcroft said. But if youve got a partially vaccinated population, that means you still have some susceptible people, where if a vaccinated person passes it on to a non-vaccinated person, they could still be in danger of being hospitalized or dying.

Experts also raised the question of whether the vaccines might lose more of their power against the variant faster than they would against other SARS-2 iterations. How long the protection elicited by any of the existing vaccines lasts, against any version of the virus, remains an open question. Essentially, researchers have to track vaccinated people and watch when their immunity wanes. But a weaker response could start to dissipate faster.

When were looking at four months down from vaccination, six months down from vaccination, these numbers could be even worse, Kristian Andersen, an infectious diseases expert at Scripps Research Institute, said about the differing efficacy levels by variant.

Andersen said the Novavax and J&J results should serve as a rallying cry for the global scientific community including vaccine makers and regulators to prepare, in case the B.1.351 variant or some other form of SARS-2 is able to escape immune protection in ways the trial data do not yet show. He said people shouldnt assume that because the vaccines appeared to guard against severe disease from B.1.351 during the trial, that people will carry that protection for a long period.

If we sit around and wait until we have all the perfect data showing do you or do you not get people with severe disease? Does it help control transmission? All these things if we sit around and wait, and were wrong, thats bad, he said.

The clinical trials of the two vaccines authorized in the U.S. the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech products were completed before particular variants of concern took off, so there are not clinical data on how the shots stack up against B.1.351.

Instead, scientists have studied in lab experiments how well neutralizing antibodies taken from people whove been vaccinated fend off the variants. So far, the companies have reported drops in the antibodies potency against B.1.351 or select mutations in the variant, but the message from them and other scientists has been that the shots produce such sky-high levels of defense that they can withstand some loss of response without really changing how well they protect people.

Theres a lot of headroom in the mRNA vaccines, Linda-Gail Bekker, the deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, told reporters this week, referring to the mRNA technology with which both vaccines are made. With B.1.351, even if there is a little bit of ding there, we would still be in a very good space.

But scientists caution that its difficult to extrapolate what such lab experiments mean for the real world. The experiments only look at neutralizing antibodies, while the immune response includes other types of antibodies as well as fighters like T cells. With that thinking, its possible that the real immune response from vaccines is even more robust against mutations than the lab data show.

But the drop in neutralizing antibody power in the experiments, combined with the drop in efficacy in the Novavax and J&J trials, leads some experts to think that if the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines were put up against B.1.351 in trials, they might also see declines in efficacy.

Right now, B.1.351 accounts for just a fraction of global Covid-19 infections. But already, researchers are exploring ways to update vaccines to better target it or other worrisome variants that crop up. Vaccine makers have announced theyre studying strain-specific boosters or next-generation vaccines that could target multiple variants, and regulators have said theyre considering how to green light tweaked vaccines without requiring the full package of trials that new products have to fulfill.

B.1.351 is not the only variant that researchers worry could evade the immune response. Another variant, called P.1 and identified first in Brazil, shares some of the same mutations. There is preliminary evidence that both variants can slip past the protection generated after an initial Covid-19 case and reinfect people more easily than other SARS-2 types.

But the clinical trial results do not change the imperative to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible with the shots that are available, experts stress. If anything, they add to the pressure to pick up the global pace. The shots protect people from Covid-19. And, if they can help drive down cases which steps communities and individuals take to slow the spread of the virus will also do they will prevent people from getting sick and dying, and decrease the likelihood that other potentially dangerous variants emerge.

We need to vaccinate even faster and even more, Andersen said. The vaccines are still effective.

Original post:

What scientists know about the new variants and the Covid-19 vaccines - STAT

MADISON (WKOW) -- One year ago, Wisconsin's first coronavirus case was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The patient was treated at UW Hospital in Madison.

Dr. Louis Scrattish was on duty in the emergency department that day.

He told WISN-TV about his concern for the patient, the other 30 patients in the ER and the medical team.

"I remember that the charge nurse had gone up to me and said that they had a patient that had just checked in whom had just traveled from China ---- and was coming in with symptoms consistent with possible COVID," Dr. Scrattish said. "There was a lot we did not know about the coronavirus at that time, and how sick it could make people. So I think there certainly was some fear there."

The patient came in days before the case of COVID-19 was confirmed. It took some time to get the test results back because the test had to go all the way to the CDC in Atlanta.

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UW Health doctor reflects on treating first Wisconsin COVID-19 patient - WKOW

Since last year humanity was shaken by fear and uncertainty due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus, bringing to light the fragility and vulnerability of human existence. To fight against the propagation of this virus, the human family tried to adapt itself to this unprecedented and challenging situation by observing social distancing and lockdowns, the closing of borders and the massive use of digital technology. Pope Francis has often said that the virus brought us together and only in solidarity can we get out of this pandemic.

This year, vaccines have become available, thus, bringing much hope, but also a wider gap in inequality. The rich nations of the Global North that poured money into the production of the vaccines are now waiting for a return on their investment. It is believed that the miracle of the vaccines would reignite the global machinery. This has led to a kind of focus on the North, shown in nationalism and protectionism. The Global South, where the majority of the poor live, is left out.

Pope Francis encouraged people to get vaccinated because it was one way of exercising responsibility towards others and collective well-being. He reiterated the need for vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy in all regions on the planet. Before all others: the most vulnerable and needy! We are at a crucial moment, an opportunity to live the miracle of charity, through addressing together the present challenge.

The access to vaccines across the world has not been as equitable as it should be. It is sad to note that not all nations and those who want or need the vaccine can get it because of supply issues, while in our interconnected world, the vaccines must be made available equitably.

Since every life is inviolable, nobody must be left out. The poor, minorities, refugees, the marginalised are the most exposed to the virus. Taking care of them is a moral priority because abandoning them puts them and the global community at risk. Our collective well-being depends on how we care for the least.

As we face a global emergency, political leaders must look beyond the interests of their own nations and political groups. This pandemic is a global human security problem that threatens the whole human family. Addressing the vaccines issue from the perspective of a narrow national strategy might lead to a moral failure in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable across the globe.

The current vaccines crisis must be seen in the wider context of the global health situation. Many of the least developed nations still lack basic medical infrastructures and the means of storing the vaccines. Moreover, people in distant rural areas are not sensitised and are exposed to other infectious diseases that remain prevalent.Given this context, the international community should have a holistic, multi-stakeholder approach to avoid the danger of the pandemic getting out of hand in the Global South which may then lead to a global humanitarian crisis again.

The debt of low-income countries should be reviewed. The remission of debt could be a means for generating funds for the multi-stakeholders, Faith-Based Organisations in particular, to upgrade the medical services and facilities in these countries. The money that is meant to pay a poor countrys debt could be spent for strengthening health security.

The question of the patent on the vaccines must also be considered urgently to identify localised production in Africa, Latin America and Asia and accelerate access to the vaccines before it is too late. Involving local actors, in particular Faith-based Organisations, is important because they have the basic structures and the necessary contact with the most vulnerable people such as migrants, the internally displaced and the marginalised.

In line with the observations made by the Dicastery for promoting Integral Human development Vaccines for all: 20 points for a fair and healthier world, Caritas Internationalis urges the decisions makers and the United Nations to act on the following, namely:

Call for a Security Council meeting to address the issue of access to the vaccines as a global security problem with firm political decisions based on multilateralism.

Undertake the debt remission of the poorest countries as quickly as possible and use the funds obtained to upgrade the medical and health systems in these countries.

Promote the local production of vaccines in different technical hubs in Africa, Latin America and Asia and make them available in the next six months by addressing the issue of patent and technical collaboration with the poorer nations.

Allocate financial and technical support to the local Civil Society Organisations, and to Faith-Based Organisations in particular, to ensure the preparation of local communities awareness and capacity building to prepare them to have access to preventive care.

H.E. Luis Antonio Card. Tagle,President of Caritas Internationalis

H.E. Peter Kodwo Appiah Card. Turkson,Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development

Aloysius John,Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis

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Urgent action for access to COVID-19 vaccines nobody should be left out - World - ReliefWeb

Janet Hanson hasnt had anyone inside her home outside of maintenance workers for almost a year.

Because of the pandemic, the 86-year-old -- who lives in the Friendship Village senior citizen complex in Kalamazoo -- cant travel to see her daughter in Arizona. Hanson saw her son only in outdoor venues until it got too cold, and now theyre limited to phone calls. Her social life these days are limited to outdoor walks with several neighbors, all fully masked.

But on Friday, Hanson got her second dose of the Moderna vaccine. In two weeks, she will be considered 95% protected against COVID-19.

And yet its unclear when Hansons life will change; she still needs to adhere to the strict rules put in place by Friendship Village.

And its not just Friendship Village. Hanson is one of a quarter-million Michigan residents who have gotten two doses of a coronavirus vaccine so far, and public-health experts and infectious-disease doctors are saying all those individuals need to continue with masks and social distancing for now.

We havent gotten to the point yet where we say, OK, you can go go around maskless even after vaccination, even two weeks after the second dose, said Dr. Frank Rosenblat, an Oakland County infectious disease specialist with McLaren Health.

The issue is this, say Rosenblat and others: The data is clear that the vaccines greatly reduces the risks of being hospitalized or dying of COVID-19. What is much less clear is whether the current vaccines protect against asymptomatic cases.

And if, in fact, vaccinated people can still be infected with the virus, that means they could infect others and put them at risk of severe illness or death.

So whats happening now is, in effect, a real-world experiment to see what happens, and help public-health experts craft appropriate guidelines.

We have a pretty good confidence level that the vaccines prevent serious illness associated with COVID, Rosenblat said. But we dont know if people who are vaccinated can still transmit the virus to others. Theres no real data yet. Were experiencing and collecting the data as we go.

So Im telling my patients to stay safe, he said. Continue to put a mask on and do all the things you were doing before with social distancing and all that stuff until we have some better data, which Im pretty confident well have in the coming months.

Dr. Anurag Malani, an Ann Arbor infectious disease specialist with Trinity Health, said hes also telling his patients to stay the course on coronavirus mitigation strategies for now.

If you look at the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials, the vaccines were 95% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID infection, he said. But we dont have the answers yet on whether people can still be infected and infectious. And the other thing thats really important is you dont necessarily know whos had the vaccine.

For those reasons, he said, the guidance around masking and social distancing, thats not going away right now, and I dont see that changing in the near future.

That said, Malani said that researchers will be looking closely at different metrics to see how fast the nationwide vaccination program can bring down the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, and at what point herd immunity kicks in -- which means case rates fall low enough that even unvaccinated people are unlikely to get the virus.

While doctors stress the importance of masking and social distancing in public venues, they do say people who are fully immunized can start weighing the risk of increased interactions with friends and family in private settings, particularly with others who are also immunized.

If youve had the vaccine and someone else has had the vaccine, that kind of changes things in terms of rules for interaction, Malani said. The risk of spending time together is going to be significantly less, if theres any risk at all.

Its been almost a month since Dr. Maureen Ford, an emergency department physician at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, got her second dose of vaccine. Shes still masking and social distancing around those outside her household.

I definitely havent changed my immediate behavior, she said.

But once her parents and in-laws get fully immunized, Ford said that she may loosen things up a bit with them -- although one factor is that Fords husband and children will still be unvaccinated.

We may hang out indoors, but I honestly think well still mask, she said. And hopefully, in the spring and summer, we can do more -- especially outdoor stuff -- and be able to see each other more regularly.

Ford said there are tentative plans for a summer camping trip with extended family. Were optimistic that can happen, she said.

Dr. Dennis Cunningham, an infectious disease specialist with Henry Ford Health System in metro Detroit, said the vaccine does give more protection, which means, say, sharing a meal with people outside the household becomes less risky.

But even with the vaccine, he said, theres still a 5% risk for a vaccinated person to have a symptomatic case of COVID. You have to think about whether its worth the risk, he said. It can be a pretty brutal infection, so I would advise people to be more conservative in relaxing the rules.

But Mulani also acknowledges that many people -- especially senior citizens -- have had severely constricted social lives for almost a year, and the risk vs. benefit calculations have shifted as the pandemic has continued.

COVID has taught us that nothing is 100% risk free, right? he said. Its all about risk mitigation.

So yes, I think even if youve been vaccinated, you need to avoid a Super Bowl party with people you dont know, he said. But there are situations where the risk is low enough that Id be willing to consider the potential upside, like grandparents seeing their family members. Vaccinated people getting together with other vaccinated people.

He and others also said that as more people become vaccinated and, hopefully, coronavirus case levels diminish, public-health recommendations are likely to loosen in upcoming months.

The way we move towards a time where were not wearing masks is by having enough of population immune -- herd immunity -- and were nowhere near that now, Mulani said. But as more people get vaccinated, every day is hopefully a step in the right direction.

It cant come fast enough for Hanson and her friends in Friendship Village.

A lot of us do feel its about time to start the change in moving back to normal, Hanson said. Change at least some things. Im looking forward to it.

Read more on MLive:

Restaurants reopen today for indoor dining here are Michigans new rules

Double masking as coronavirus variants spread, where to find the right masks

9% of Michigan adults vaccinated against COVID-19 so far; see numbers in your county

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For those now fully immunized against COVID-19, the rules havent changed - yet - MLive.com

Mass vaccination locations are listed first below, offer the most appointments, and updateavailability every Thursday.

If your search does not turn up any results, try expanding the distance.

NOTICE: Appointments are available for the next week at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Fenway Park in Boston, and the Eastfield Mall in Springfield. Other locations may still have limited availability.

How to schedule your appointment: On the search results page, click on the highlighted link under "URL" to go to the booking site and schedule your appointment.

Continue reading here:

map of COVID-19 vaccination locations - Mass.gov

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) -- The release of hundreds of migrant families who had crossed illegally into South Texas has prompted an outcry from migrant advocates about how these immigrants should be referred to in the media.

"The phrase 'catch and release' is an extremely dehumanizing phrase because it comes from fishing, and therefore it compares human beings to fish, to animals," Efrn Olivares, deputy legal directorfor the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Border Report. "It is also a propagandistic phrase developed by anti-immigrant hardliners."

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Vaccines overtake COVID-19 infections - WWLP.com

The ghost lights new message is emanating from stages in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Florida, California, and across the globe. Sarah Rasmussen, artistic director of Princetons McCarter Theatre Center, says that she will sometimes walk into the McCarters Matthews Theatre just to spend a moment in the presence of the ghost light and remind herself that live performances will be back someday.

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Ghost light tradition at Philly theaters has taken on a COVID-19 meaning of hope - The Philadelphia Inquirer