The Biden government will begin sending coronavirus vaccines directly to community health centers as it increases distribution and reaches underserved communities, the White House announced on Tuesday.
At least one center in each state and territory will receive vaccines as the program increases to 250 of the more than 1,300 such units in the country. Participating centers will receive a total of 1 million doses, starting next week. In later stages, vaccines will be available for all community health centers.
“This effort … really has to do with connecting with those hard-to-reach populations across the country,” said Marcella Nunez-Smith, who heads the COVID-19 health equity task force. This includes homeless people, residents of public residences, migrant workers and people with limited English proficiency.
Most of the patients seen by the centers live on or below the federal poverty line. The majority is also a minority, according to the government. The announcement comes amid concerns about inequities in the distribution of vaccines and an often confusing and slow implementation.
Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, also said the supply of vaccines to states, tribal governments and territories was growing by 5% last week. The new weekly total of 11 million doses represents a 28% increase over the 8.6 million dispensed when Biden took office three weeks ago, Zients said.
“I think it’s the manufacturers doing a good job and the president and the team doing everything we can to support this manufacturing process,” said Zients.
– Maureen Groppe
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In the headlines:
►The United States has reported 775,975 new cases of COVID-19 over a seven-day period ending on Monday, the first time the weekly count has been less than 800,000 cases since November 6. The country peaked at about 1.75 million cases per week last month. The death toll, which is usually behind cases in about four weeks, remains as high as ever, averaging 21,700 per week, an average of 3,100 per day.
►Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be quarantined for 14 days after a member of his security team tested positive for COVID-19, announced his chief of staff. Buttigieg said the Biden administration is considering a rule that would require negative results from the COVID-19 test for domestic air travel.
► Congressional Democrats rejected requests by some moderate lawmakers to reduce the number of people eligible for $ 1,400 stimulus checks in President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief proposal, proposing a $ 75,000 annual income cap, the same as the last round of $ 600 checks.
►Want a COVID-19 test for your pet? In South Korea, officials said they will run free tests on dogs and cats if they come into contact with infected humans and are symptomatic. And yes, they will have to be quarantined for 14 days if the test is positive.
📈 Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 27.1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 466,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: More than 106.6 million cases and 2.33 million deaths. More than 62.8 million doses of vaccines have been distributed in the United States and about 43.2 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re reading: Even with the latest increase in coronavirus infections decreasing across the country, the USA TODAY survey found 245 hospitals that reported complete intensive care units on January 28 and 477 hospitals reporting more patients with COVID-19 in the ICU than in the week. previous. You can find out which hospitals in your community are overloaded here.
Vaccines in some pharmacies available Friday
The much-coveted vaccine injection may be available at a nearby pharmacy this week for those who qualify.
CVS and Walgreens, the country’s two largest drugstore chains, will begin vaccinating selected populations in stores on Friday. The CVS program will initially include 350 drugstores in 11 states, while Walgreens will offer vaccines in some locations in 17 states and jurisdictions. Appointments are mandatory. Other pharmacies chosen to deliver vaccines to certain locations include Walmart, Ride Aid, Kroger, Publix, Albertsons, Safeway, Costco and Meijer.
Experts hope that the country’s established network of pharmacies will help speed up distribution amid dismay over the pace of implementation.
– Nathan Bomey
The rate of vaccination increases, but uneven across states
President Joe Biden’s effort to create 100 mass vaccination sites across the country in 100 days is underway. California and Maryland announced new openings at several of these locations last week and residents of several other states readily signed up for COVID-19 injections. The US government currently administers around 1.4 million vaccines a day, and states like Wisconsin are accelerating the pace by expanding implementation to include free vaccination clinics.
But other states are avoiding giving vaccines while consultations remain vague. In Massachusetts, there are still more than 7,500 consultations available at mass vaccination sites, but Governor Charlie Baker said they will not go to anyone who is not in the early stages of vaccination or is at least 75 years old.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday it was “worrying news” that some vaccines appear less effective against the South African variant of the coronavirus.
Vaccine manufacturers will need to modify their vaccines and boosters are likely to be needed in the future as the virus changes genetically, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Should employers give workers time off or other incentives to get the vaccine?
TJ Daniels hoped, after working at a Petco store in Colorado for 11 months during a pandemic, that the company would give him free time to get a COVID-19 vaccine and deal with any potential side effects. Until now, nothing. And while Petco says it is about to announce a plan, most major employers, including Amazon, Target and Walmart, are not committed to providing any extra pay or time off for workers to get their photos.
Supporters say the incentives will encourage vaccination, which will result in more protection for employees and customers. It will also potentially limit the downtime that can occur when workers contract the virus. Experts say that a large proportion of the US population – perhaps 80% – needs to be vaccinated to build collective immunity, which would limit the coronavirus from continuing to spread.
Dollar General, McDonald’s and Olive Garden are among employers who have announced incentives for workers to be vaccinated. But most others are saying only that they are strongly encouraging vaccination and essentially forcing workers to do it on their own schedule.
– Nathan Bomey
WHO says it will end research on the improbable coronavirus leak theory in the laboratory
World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday that they would no longer research whether the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Peter Ben Embarek, a specialist in food safety and animal diseases, announced the decision during a press conference to end the visit of an international team of WHO experts to the city where COVID-19 was first identified in 2019.
Embarek said there was insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that the virus escaped from a Chinese biosafety laboratory in Wuhan – the Wuhan Institute of Virology – and that WHO maintained its earlier determination that COVID-19 was likely to enter the population human via an intermediate animal.
The WHO team spent several weeks on an investigation mission in Wuhan. Experts from 10 countries visited hospitals, research institutes and a wildlife market linked to the outbreak. However, WHO’s fieldwork and other activities in Wuhan have been closely monitored by Chinese officials and security officials, and Beijing has repeatedly resisted the call for a fully independent investigation into the origins of the virus.
– Kim Hjelmgaard
Concerning South African variant could change vaccine expectations
A new study showing that the South African variant of the coronavirus eliminates protection from the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine means that “we must recalibrate our expectations,” said Shabir Madhi, director of the Analytical Research Unit for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the University of Witwatersrand, which conducted the trial.
There is still much to learn about the variant, which has been detected in only six cases in the US so far. We still do not know if it is more transmissible and if so in how much, or if the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine prevents serious diseases of the variant, as some scientists hope.
AstraZeneca researchers say they are working to adjust their vaccine by inserting a genetic sequence for the new variant.
The variant reduced the level of protection offered by virtually all vaccines, but most vaccines show satisfactory effectiveness in protecting against severe cases and causes of death from this version of the virus, said Madhi. Here are more answers to questions about the variant.
Facebook acts to suppress lies about COVID-19 vaccines
Facebook is moving more aggressively to combat misinformation about vaccines, eliminating claims that were contradicted on Facebook and Instagram, including that vaccines cause autism or that it is safer for people to take COVID-19 than to get immunized.
Facebook also warned that groups, pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these falsehoods could be removed. Group administrators who have administrators or members who have violated COVID-19 policies may also be asked to temporarily approve all posts.
The new policy is a starting point for Facebook. Last fall, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would not target anti-vaccination posts in the same way that it cracked down on COVID’s misinformation.
False vaccine claims have been circulating on social media platforms for years, giving rise to a powerful anti-xxx movement with deep roots and long reach.
– Jessica Guynn
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article was originally published in USA TODAY: COVID News: Vaccines sent to community health centers; CVS, Walgreens