US states ignore Covid’s peak warnings – Coronavirus Fact vs. Fiction

US states ignore Covid’s peak warnings – Coronavirus Fact vs. Fiction

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“The continued relaxation of prevention measures, while cases are still high and while variants are spreading rapidly across the United States, is a serious threat to the progress we have made as a nation,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control. Control and Prevention Diseases at a White House briefing.

It was not the first time that Walensky raised such concerns and a chorus of other health experts made a similar statement: although vaccination numbers continue to rise, safety measures will be critical in the coming weeks to help contain another possible increase, considered dangerous variants spread across the country.

“It’s really a race,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Christina Maxouris of CNN. “It can happen anyway,” he said. Hotez added that a combination of relaxing measures, allowing people to travel and new variants circulating in the country, all threaten success.

In Indiana, a facial coverage mandate will become a state mask council in most public places starting April 6, Governor Eric Holcomb said on Tuesday. Decisions about the capacity of the venue will be in the hands of local authorities, and customers in restaurants, bars and nightclubs will no longer need to sit. In Virginia, the limits for internal and external meetings will increase and certain sports and entertainment venues will be able to operate with extra capacity.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWER.

Q: When will children and adolescents be vaccinated against Covid-19?

ONE: Most countries are not yet thinking about vaccinating children on a large scale against Covid-19, prioritizing adults, who are at greater risk of developing the virus disease in general. But for Americans, at least, it is a reasonable issue, as more than 44 million people in the country are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Covid-19 vaccines in the USA are available only to adults, except the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, which is authorized for people aged 16 and over. Although there is a chance that a vaccine will be available for high school and high school children this fall, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said that younger children may have to wait until first quarter of 2022. Read here for more information.
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WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY

AstraZeneca defends the data while the questions revolve around its last confrontation

Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca defended its data after the United States’ NIAID raised concerns that the company might have included outdated information, giving an “incomplete view” of the effectiveness of its vaccine. The company published on Monday the results of brilliant clinical trials, showing that the vaccine was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 and 100% effective in preventing hospitalization or serious illnesses.
AstraZeneca said on Tuesday that it would provide the institute with the most recent data within 48 hours, but the slip raised questions about the company’s management. Several vaccine consultants in the United States said the company can expect many questions when applying for authorization there. The company was accused of sowing confusion last year after combining data from differently designed clinical trials involving varying dosing regimes.

Could the EU block vaccine exports to the UK?

European Union leaders are unveiling a proposal on Wednesday to adapt existing export rules for Covid-19 vaccines, days after senior officials threatened to block the Netherlands’ export of the vaccine to the United Kingdom. The EU and the United Kingdom have been at odds for months over a limited supply of vaccines, especially those made by AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca has set delivery targets for the UK and the EU, but has failed to deliver tens of millions of doses to the 27-nation bloc, which is struggling to implement vaccination programs that will help reopen its economies. The company said it is prioritizing the UK with doses produced in that country, but Brussels is outraged at the delivery of doses made in the EU via the English Channel.

German leader Merkel apologizes and reverses Easter block

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was rescinding an order to label several days during “quiet” Easter days, essentially canceling a rigid five-day blockade she announced early Tuesday after a marathon with state leaders. The country is battling an outbreak of infections.

Her initial orders were based on good intentions, she said at a press conference hastily organized at the German Chancellery on Wednesday, acknowledging that the necessary changes were not possible with so little warning. Merkel apologized to the nation and said the Easter confusion was “my mistake, singular and lonely”.

ON OUR RADAR

  • Shave or not shave? Growing a beard may seem harmless, but for some, choosing not to shave can reduce the effectiveness of wearing the mask.
  • ‘How to Juggle Bowling Pins and Chainsaws’: Kaylah Dessausure talks about the challenges of a single mother’s life during the pandemic.
  • Pellets and iPads: To keep employees happy in the midst of the stress and exhaustion of the pandemic, some Wall Street banks are handing out toys, gifts and benefits.
  • After living in a trailer for a year to keep his family safe, this doctor finally came home.
  • Hong Kong and Macau suspended the distribution of the BioNTech coronavirus vaccine due to a defect in the packaging, as a precaution after receiving a letter from the company and its Chinese partner indicating a problem with the seal on individual vials in a batch.

TIPS

For many parents whose children have been attending online school for almost a year, mass vaccination can bring a better future. So, how should parents prepare their children for return to school? Plan ahead, says Dr. Neha Chaudhary. Talk to school officials about what children need to bring and have contingency plans for slips, such as when the mask falls on the dirty floor or when children forget to wash their hands. Read here for more tips.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“This pandemic is basically about ethics. It is ethics up front. They are ideas about freedom, ideas about sharing, ideas about who goes first.” – Arthur Caplan, Director of Bioethics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

If you are not yet eligible for the vaccine, should you still try to get the vaccine earlier anyway? CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta talks to Caplan about when the linear jump is defensible and other ethical decisions surrounding the distribution of vaccines in the United States. Listen now. Listen now.

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