Tyson Foods strives to ensure sufficient vaccines for its employees
A Tyson Foods employee puts a second protective mask outside the company’s meat processing plant, which was hit by an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Waterloo, Iowa, USA
Jeffrey Becker | USA TODAY NETWORK | REUTERS
Tyson Foods recently started an effort to immunize employees at its factories in Missouri, Illinois and Virginia. The meat-processing company was only able to guarantee 1,000 servings, according to a report by CNBC’s Bertha Coombs.
The company has managed to receive 25 to 50 doses at a time so far this month to immunize its occupational health and safety workers over 65, but Tyson Foods employs 120,000 workers in two dozen states.
“We are not refusing any opportunity for our team members to get a vaccine,” explained Tom Brower, senior vice president of health and safety at Tyson.
More than 12,500 Tyson Foods employees hired Covid-19, according to the Food Environmental Reporting Network watchdog group. Tyson has not confirmed these reports and says it has kept its employees safe.
–Rich Mendez
Pfizer asks FDA to approve storage of vaccine doses at higher temperatures
A photo taken on January 15, 2021 shows a pharmacist holding an undiluted Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19 in gloved hands, stored at -70 ° in a super freezer at Le Mans hospital, northwest France as the country has a vaccination campaign to fight the spread of the new coronavirus.
Jean-Francois Monier | AFP | Getty Images
Pfizer said it is seeking permission from the Food and Drug Administration to store its Covid-19 vaccine for two weeks at temperatures commonly found in freezers and pharmaceutical refrigerators.
The vaccine, which was developed with the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, currently needs to be stored in deep-frozen freezers that keep it between minus 112 and minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Pfizer said it has sent new data to the U.S. agency showing that the vaccine is stable between minus 13 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
The vaccine is shipped in a special thermal container that can be used as temporary storage for up to 30 days, replenishing with dry ice every five days. The move could make the vaccine easier to transport across the United States at a time when the rate of inoculations is slow.
—Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
Former CEO of Aetna on how to speed up the launch of the vaccine in the USA
The Biden government this week announced plans to double the number of vaccines sent directly to pharmacies from one million to two million doses a week, with a target of reaching 40,000 pharmacies across the country. Mark Bertolini, former CEO and president of Aetna, joined CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss.
Pfizer vaccine reduces infection rates, may be effective after the first dose, studies show
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
Sergio Perez | Reuters
In a wave of encouraging news, two Israeli studies showed that the Pfizer vaccine, made in conjunction with Germany’s BioNTech, could have a profound impact on the transmission of the virus, reports Reuters.
A study by Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health found that the Pfizer vaccine reduces infection rates in asymptomatic cases by 89.4% and in symptomatic cases by 93.7%, the news agency reported.
A separate study from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center found that hospital staff who received their first dose in January saw an 85% reduction in symptomatic Covid-19 in 15 to 28 days, and the overall reduction in infections, including asymptomatic cases, was 75%.
–Terri Cullen
Biotechnology expert Geoffrey Porges discusses the effectiveness of variant vaccines
After a recent study was released on the impact of variant B.1.351, found for the first time in South Africa, on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, Geoffrey Porges, director of Therapeutic Research and senior biotechnology analyst at SVB Leerink, put together to the CNBC Exchange Worldwide group to discuss the implications.
Daily average new cases of Covid in the US decreasing in 43 states
The United States is seeing a decline in new cases of Covid, on an average of seven days, in 43 states, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. Only Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming reported a seven-day average increase in new cases.
Covid’s serious cases have stabilized in Washington, which has a seven-day average of 704 current hospitalizations, down 3.9% from the previous week. Hospitalizations are declining in the other 49 states.
This data provided by JHU is collected from dozens of state and local agencies that have different reporting methodologies and levels of accuracy. Comparisons of the seven-day average help to smooth out inconsistencies in state reporting procedures.
—Melodie Warner