Data on the coronavirus variant in South Africa are “worrying” and current vaccines are less effective against it than the original strain or the UK variant, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday.
Fauci, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, said that less is known about the South African variant than the British version, which proved to be more transmissible than the original version of the virus.
“But we know that (the South African variant) escapes the protection of some of the monoclonal antibodies and slightly decreases the vaccine’s ability and effectiveness to block it,” said Fauci. “It doesn’t eliminate it, but it decreases it several times.
Fauci said that “there is still a little protection” for current vaccines to provide some protection against it. He added that in South Africa, there were people who were infected with the original virus, recovered and were reinfected with the South African variant. This indicates that the previous infection does not protect anyone against reinfection with the South African variant, he said.
“The good news is that it looks like the vaccine is better than the natural infection to prevent you from being infected again,” said Fauci.
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In the headlines:
►A woman from Los Angeles County died shortly after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, local health officials said. Dr. Michael E. Morris, director of the vaccination program at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said in a statement that the woman, 78, “died unexpectedly” on Friday after being vaccinated. He also said that, according to her family, the woman had a history of heart disease. The county’s Department of Public Health said his death appeared unrelated to the vaccine.
►New Zealand’s largest city was blocked for at least three days on Sunday and police set up checkpoints at eight locations on the Auckland border. The crackdown comes after three family members tested positive. The entire nation of about 5 million people has less than 50 known cases today.
►The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not currently recommend the mandatory COVID-19 test prior to domestic air travel, the CDC said in a statement to CNN on Saturday. Federal officials said this week that they were considering domestic testing requirements.
►China declined to provide raw data on the first cases of COVID-19 to a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the pandemic, one of the team’s investigators, Dominic Dwyer, told Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. The WHO chief said on Friday that all hypotheses about the origins of the coronavirus were still being investigated and analyzed after a team of investigators said earlier this week that the theory that the virus leaked from a virology laboratory in Wuhan it would no longer be investigated.
►Health officials in the state of Florida reported that more than 10,000 residents and employees of long-term care facilities died of COVID-19.
📈 Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 27.6 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 485,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: More than 108.7 million cases and 2.39 million deaths. More than 70 million doses of vaccine have been distributed in the United States and about 52.8 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re reading: People of color were the ones who suffered the most from COVID-19. But now that the vaccine is here, they are much less likely to have received their first dose – for many of the same reasons. Read More.
COVID-19 cases continue to decline, but variants are increasing
New cases of COVID-19 in the United States have been dropping slowly since a peak several weeks ago, with the daily average dropping below 100,000 on Friday for the first time since November 4 and staying below that number on Saturday as well. It is still more than a new case every second, but it is less than half the rate that the country reported in January.
However, the number of infections known for coronavirus variants has increased in recent weeks. The 1,193 cases of variants reported on Sunday represent almost 200 more cases than on Thursday night, almost doubling the total on February 4.
Variant B.1.1.7 seen for the first time in the United Kingdom, considered at least 50% more contagious than the original strain, accounts for the vast majority of known cases with 1,173. It is spreading rapidly and could become the dominant strain in the United States in late March.
Florida has almost 1/3 of the country’s total known cases, with 379.
– Mike Stucka
New Orleans gets tough with Mardi Gras celebrations
New Orleans is cracking down on its annual Mardi Gras celebrations this week and health officials in other cities are warning potential revelers to do the same amid an increase in coronavirus variant cases across the country. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered the bars to close during the Mardi Gras weekend, which started Friday and runs through Tuesday. Parades are canceled and there are limits to gatherings.
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the annual pre-Lenten festival celebrated over much of the Gulf coast. Last year’s revelry is believed to have contributed to an early rise that made Louisiana a hot spot for coronavirus.
FDA policy to allow antibody testing without “flawed” authorization, officials say
The US Food and Drug Administration’s policy of allowing companies to market their COVID-19 antibody tests without authorization was “flawed” and allowed ineffective products to flood the market, two FDA officials wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine on Saturday. .
In March, the agency began allowing companies to market their antibody tests without FDA authorization for emergency use, as long as companies notified the agency and could show that the test worked.
“As a result, the market was flooded with serology tests, some of which performed poorly and many of which were marketed in a way that conflicted with FDA policy,” according to Jeffrey Shuren and Timothy Stenzel of the FDA.
Inexperienced or dubious companies capitalized on the lack of FDA oversight, including one that sells vaporizer pens and one headed by a self-proclaimed technology evangelist, a USA TODAY investigation found last year.
– Grace Hauck
Massachusetts program to vaccinate people who accompany elderly people quickly ‘abused’
Some people in Massachusetts are offering rides and even money to take the chance to take advantage of a state rule that allows those accompanying people aged 75 and over to a coronavirus vaccination appointment to have the injection at the same time.
The wave of online advertisements by people seeking to cut the vaccination line has drawn severe disapproval from Governor Charlie Baker, who has warned against offers of help from complete strangers. “If you are contacted by someone asking to be taken to a website, please report it to the authorities,” said Baker. The elderly should accept help only from someone they trust, he said.
“While it may have been well-intentioned, it took less than 24 hours for this new state policy to be abused,” Councilwoman Andrea Campbell said in a statement.
Democratic state deputy Steve Owens said a group of lawmakers urged Baker to pause the program, noting that he saw an advertisement for someone offering $ 250 to drive an eligible resident to a vaccination facility.
Oxford University testing vaccine on children
The University of Oxford plans to test its vaccine COVID-19 – which is being produced and distributed by AstraZeneca – on children for the first time, becoming the latest vaccine developer to assess whether its injection against the coronavirus is effective in young people.
The trial announced on Saturday seeks to recruit 300 volunteers between the ages of 6 and 17, with up to 240 receiving the vaccine COVID-19 and the rest a control vaccine against meningitis.
Andrew Pollard, lead researcher for the Oxford vaccine trial, says that while most children are not seriously ill with COVID-19, “it is important to establish the safety and immune response to the vaccine in children and young people, as some children can benefit from vaccination. “
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article was originally published in USA TODAY: COVID news: Anthony Fauci; South Africa variant; Carnival; China