A year of loss and resilience in the face of COVID-19 in the Navajo Nation
Jonathan Nez, president of the Navajo Nation, reflects on the victories and defeats of a year fighting against COVID-19.
Trevor Hughes and Jasper Colt, USA TODAY
Moderna gave the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to children under the age of 12, the company announced Tuesday. The Massachusetts-based biotechnology company plans to recruit 6,750 healthy children under the age of 12 for testing.
The test comes at a time when schools struggle to return children to classrooms, keeping them 1.8 meters away – or sometimes less – to prevent infections among some of the last Americans who are likely to be vaccinated.
“This pediatric study will help us assess the safety and immunogenicity potential of our candidate vaccine COVID-19 in this important young population,” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.
The company joins Pfizer and BioNTech to start trials in children 6 months and older, after the data showed that vaccines are effective in older adults.
“If I were part of the FDA, I would certainly like to be very convinced about the safety of a vaccine before approving its use in children,” said Dr. Cody Meissner, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Children’s Hospital in October, when the Pfizer started pediatric trials. “The pattern of the disease is very different in children, and grouping them with adults would cause me some discomfort.”
Also in the news:
►Rep. John Katko, RN.Y., is calling on President Joe Biden to declare “National Vaccine Awareness Day COVID-19” as a single federal holiday to promote and encourage vaccination efforts across the country.
►China has approved a fifth vaccine for emergency use, a three-dose vaccine with one month between vaccines. China has been slow to vaccinate its population of 1.4 billion people, with 65 million doses administered. Most were for health professionals, those working at the border or in customs and specific industries.
►A year after Italy became the first country to impose a national blockade, the country imposed another on Monday, as cases and hospitalizations increased.
►The additional chapters of Greek Life in DePaul, Illinois were identified as having participated in a St. Patrick’s Day party over the weekend that violated COVID-19 city guidelines, school newspaper The DePaulia wrote Monday.
►More states are allowing all adults to be vaccinated. Mississippi joined Alaska on Tuesday in opening the vaccine’s eligibility floodgates. And Connecticut is preparing to open to all ages 16 and older starting April 5.
► Support is coming for a San Antonio man whose Noodle Tree restaurant was vandalized with racist graffiti days after he spoke out against Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to terminate a mask term across the state.
Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 29.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 535,600 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: More than 120 million cases and 2.65 million deaths. More than 135.8 million doses of vaccines have been distributed in the United States and nearly 110 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we are reading: Vaccine passports must be free, private and secure, the White House said. But who will send them?
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The pandemic took a lot last year – more than we are able to understand, let alone calculate. Jobs and experiences, weddings and graduations, security and certainty were needed. It hit the ground below our feet. It took a lot of people that we love. But the pandemic has also subsided. It allowed time, and many people liked it. People found new hobbies, new perspectives, new connections. Some people met. USA TODAY heard from more than a dozen people who said that even in the midst of horror and loss, they were grateful for the unexpected gifts of the pandemic. The smallest joys, they said, had a big impact. Read more here.
– Alia E. Dastagir
St. Patrick’s Day is the day when the green of those last stimulus payments will actually flow into many savings accounts and checking accounts. Lately, there has been some confusion about when people will have access to money via direct deposit after seeing some “pending” action related to the third stimulus payment in their bank accounts this weekend. The buzz of social media has heated up as some consumers have complained about why the money is not available.
“Banks that make stimulus payments in order to be able to charge interest overnight on the money should be a crime,” wrote @goldietaylor on Twitter, general editor of the Daily Beast. The tweet had 4,875 retweets. NACHA, which oversees direct deposit activity, says it protests.
“There is no mystery as to where the money is from the moment the first payment file was transmitted on Friday, March 12, until when all recipients will have access to the money on Wednesday – it is still with the government” , said Nacha in a statement.
– Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating whether children need to sit 6 feet away in schools. The 6-foot spacing directive is “among the biggest challenges” that schools face when returning to classrooms, said CDC principal, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
A study published last week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases suggested that if masks are worn, students can be seated up to 3 feet away, with no increased risk for them or teachers. Illinois and Massachusetts are among the states that already allow 3 feet away, and others, including Oregon, are considering it.
Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, a national group of superintendents, said he hopes to see more states and schools migrate to the 3-foot rule in the coming weeks.
“There are districts that have been measuring 90 cm for a long time without having a large amount of infection,” he said.
On Tuesday, Sweden joined an increasing number of European nations and suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, citing a link to blood clots that the company and other experts say are probably unrelated to the vaccine. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Denmark are among the nations that have already used the vaccine, a collaboration between the Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant and the University of Oxford. The World Health Organization has urged countries to continue using the vaccine, saying there is no evidence of a connection to blood clots. WHO has scheduled a meeting of its security experts for Tuesday to address the issue.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the United States National Institute of Health, told Reuters that data on the vaccine is being analyzed by independent American monitors to determine whether the injection is safe and effective. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could complete its analysis and issue an emergency use permit next month if all goes well, he said.
If you can choose, which COVID-19 vaccine should you choose? For now, experts are clear – the best vaccine is one that is about to enter your arm. But as the vaccine supply expands, it is possible that Americans will eventually find someone asking, “What vaccine do you want?”
The answer for most people will still be “Whatever is available”. That said, there are differences that can play a role, although doctors are unanimous in all three vaccines currently authorized work extremely well to protect against serious illness, hospitalization and death. Read about the difference here.
As the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine continues, the hesitation among vulnerable communities, including Hispanics, is heightened – and the story is unearthed.
Over the course of the 20th century, some 20,000 women and men have been sterilized in California alone under state eugenics policies, according to researchers, including Professor Alexandra Minna Stern of the University of Michigan. The policies targeted state-run nursing home patients or collective homes. A disproportionate number was Hispanic.
Angelina Zayas, a pastor of the Grace and Peace Community Church who serves the Belmont Cragin Hispanic majority in Chicago, says that many Puerto Rican women in her community are afraid to get the COVID-19 vaccine, citing memories of sterilizations and experiments.
“The biggest one is fear,” said Zayas, who is also Puerto Rican. “This is something they remember, which affects their judgment when they get vaccinated. They’re like, ‘Well, what can I trust?'” Read more here.
– Nada Hassanein
The federal government should not be involved in verifying that people have been vaccinated against COVID-19, says the White House, but any process developed must be free, private and secure.
As more people are vaccinated, both here and around the world, it will probably become more important to provide proof of vaccination – get on a plane or cruise ship, keep certain jobs or even enjoy a night out. Israel already has a “green card” to prove that people have been vaccinated.
While Americans need a reliable way to demonstrate that they have been vaccinated, the government should not be the only one to issue this certification, said Andy Slavitt, Senior White House Adviser for COVID-19 Response.
“It is not the government’s role to maintain this data,” said Slavitt.
– Elizabeth Weise and Karen Weintraub
After a “paralyzing” winter storm threw up to 4 feet of snow into the Rockies – closing roads and canceling flights – the storm hit the Midwest and sparked storms in the south. The result? Interference with COVID-19 vaccines, officials said.
Federal officials halted vaccine shipments to the region as the storm approached, so that bottles packaged in dry ice would not spoil during mail delays, said Wyoming Department of Health spokeswoman Kim Deti. The storm also prevented many people from reaching vaccine sites, Deti noted.
“We think it will take at least a few days,” said Deti. “Nobody is sure when things will be cleaned and reopened.”
Contributing: The Associated Press