USA TODAY is following the news around COVID-19 when a pair of vaccines joins the U.S. fight against a virus that has killed nearly 385,000 Americans since the first reported fatality in February. Keep updating this page to get the latest updates on the coronavirus, including who is receiving Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as other important news from across the USA TODAY Network. Subscribe to our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates right in your inbox, join our Facebook group or go through our detailed answers to readers’ questions for everything you need to know about coronavirus.
In the headlines:
► Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID vaccine is safe and generates an immune response, based on early-stage clinical tests, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine published Wednesday.
► Scientists at The Ohio State University have discovered a new variant of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The new variant carries a mutation identical to the United Kingdom strain, but it probably appeared in a virus strain already present in the United States.
► The Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis received the first injection of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Thursday. The 84-year-old argued that everyone should get the vaccine, calling it an “ethical option” carried out not only for their own health, but for the “lives of others”.
► A global team of researchers arrived Thursday in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus was first detected, to investigate its origins.
► Pfizer, which with BioNTech developed the first COVID-19 authorized for use by the federal government, increased the prices of 193 branded drugs this month. Although the average increase is a modest 0.5%, the price jump was about 5% for several of Pfizer’s most popular drugs.
► The Mississippi Department of Health said the state cannot schedule more coronavirus vaccination appointments because of a “monumental increase” in demand after Governor Tate Reeves announced that more people are eligible for the vaccines.
► Montana Governor Greg Gianforte announced on Wednesday that he is removing pandemic mandates issued by his predecessor. According to the new rules that come into force on Fridays, restaurants, bars, breweries, distilleries and casinos will no longer need to close at 10 pm and will not be forced to limit capacity to 50%.
► A new survey by Ipsos found that residents in several other countries were more hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine than Americans. China was the one that got the best acceptance of the vaccine, with 80% of respondents saying they would get it. France had the worst ranking, with only 40%. The US was somewhere in the middle, with 69%.
► Coronavirus deaths in the USA reached another high point in one day, more than 4,300. The total number of deaths from the coronavirus in the country has exceeded 384,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. It is fast approaching the number of Americans killed in World War II, about 405,000. The US recorded 4,327 deaths on Tuesday.
► California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that the state is removing restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines for all residents aged 65 and over. But Los Angeles County, the hardest-hit region in the state, has said it will continue to give priority to healthcare professionals. About 1 in 3 people in the county have been infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, officials said on Wednesday.
📈 Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 23 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 384,600 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: Over 92.3 million cases and 1.97 million deaths.
📘 What we’re reading: Seasonal flu has virtually disappeared, according to data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That says a lot about the transmissibility of COVID-19, health experts say. Read more here.
More college students received COVID than pre-school and school-age children when they return to school
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study on Wednesday that suggests that transmission of COVID-19 may be of more concern among college students than among younger children who go to school.
The study, published in the agency’s Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report, found that the case of COVID-19 did not increase among preschool and school children aged zero to ten in the summer and fall.
In contrast, cases increased significantly among young adults aged 18 to 24 in mid-July and early September, “suggesting that young people may contribute more to transmission in the community than younger children,” said the CDC.
The agency admits that cases of COVID-19 are probably underestimated among children and adolescents, since asymptomatic infection occurs more frequently in these age groups.
Moderna needs at least 3,000 teen volunteers to test the vaccine
Not enough teenagers are applying for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trial, a federal official said this week, potentially delaying vaccine authorization for this age group.
Moncef Slaoui, the scientific head of Operation Warp Speed, the government’s vaccination effort, said on Tuesday that while a vaccine test in adults is accumulating 800 volunteers a day, the test in adolescents is receiving only 800 a month.
The study needs at least 3,000 participants, he said, to provide valid safety and efficacy data and to obtain authorization from the FDA.
“It is really very important for all of us, for the entire population of America, to realize that we cannot have that indication unless teenagers aged 12 to 18 decide to participate,” said Slaoui.
– Karen Weintraub
Some Wisconsin hospitals offer vaccine to employees who do not care for patients
Facing shortages at immunization clinics and missed doses, some Wisconsin hospital systems are offering COVID-19 vaccines to teams that do not work with patients or in medical settings, under an interpretation of the vaccine prioritization guidelines that federal advisers say is a overkill.
At least one hospital system – Advocate Aurora – opened vaccine consultations for all employees. In other health systems, officials listed as administrators or public relations specialists received vaccines, according to social media posts.
Wisconsin is still finishing the first phase of its vaccine distribution plan, which includes long-term care facilities and healthcare personnel, with a focus on first-rate hospital staff.
The decisions of some hospitals to include employees who work at home and do not interact with patients have caused astonishment in Wisconsin and other states.
– Daphne Chen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
What will COVID-19 look like in the future? Perhaps another common cold, study says
SARS-CoV-2 “could join the ranks of light, long-term cold-causing human coronaviruses,” according to a model developed by scientists at Emory University and Penn State University.
The model, published on Tuesday in the scientific journal Science, compares the deadly virus to four coronaviruses of the common cold plus the SARS and MERS viruses, which emerged in 2003 and 2012, respectively.
The researchers determined from the model that if the coronavirus continues to circulate in the general population and most people are exposed to it from childhood, it can be added to the list of common colds.
The study authors admit that the model makes some assumptions about coronavirus and common colds that are not yet known, but a message to take home is “the critical need for large-scale vaccination may decrease in the short term,” said the author of the study, Ottar Bjornstad, who teaches entomology and biology at Penn State University.
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article was originally published in USA TODAY: COVID news: WHO researchers in Wuhan; Modern vaccine trial; Deaths in the USA