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Elinor Aspegren
| USA TODAY
COVID-19: Current vaccines may be less effective in some variants
Variants of COVID-19 are emerging in America and scientists are learning that the vaccine may not work as well against them.
USA TODAY
President Joe Biden expressed optimism on Tuesday that the launch of the vaccine in the United States will exceed predictions, although a major winter storm is hampering efforts to deliver the vaccines this week.
“Before taking office, I set a big goal of managing 100 million shots in the first 100 days,” said Biden on Tuesday. “With the progress we are making, I believe that not only will we achieve this, but we will break it.”
Experts argued that Biden’s goal may not be enough to get the country to the point where vaccines are readily available in the spring. Vaccines should be manufactured, shipped and injected much more quickly, they say. Dr. Anthony Fauci said last week that it would be a “hunting season” for all Americans who want the vaccine by April.
But the timetable remains uncertain, as implementation has been hampered by a lack of supplies, forcing vaccination sites to close and generating long lines and thousands of people on waiting lists. Biden also said earlier that most Americans will not be vaccinated until the end of the summer.
On Tuesday, the winter storm that led to icy roads, power outages and dangerously low temperatures across much of the country was disrupting coast-to-coast traffic and delaying the delivery of vaccines.
Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Emergency Management Division, said the state was warned that shipments were delayed. It was not clear how many doses would be affected and when deliveries would resume.
Texas state health officials, who are expected to receive more than 400,000 additional doses of vaccines this week, do not expect deliveries until at least Wednesday. And vaccine appointments in Houston and Austin was due to be canceled again on Tuesday because of the harsh winter.
In Illinois, all vaccination and test sites operated by the city of Chicago closed on Tuesday because of the city’s biggest snowfall of the year. More than 100 suppliers in Chicago did not receive their expected vaccine shipments Tuesday, said Dr. Allison Arwady, a commissioner in the Chicago Department of Public Health.
“Most of our vaccine comes in trucks from Tennessee, and we are not getting the vaccine,” said Arwady.
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In the headlines:
►A year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of N95 masks are leaving US factories and going to storage, but there is still not enough to go to hospitals, an Associated Press investigation found.
►Fran Goldman, 90, did not let a foot of snow stop her from her vaccination appointment. She told the Seattle Times that she walked ten kilometers to get the vaccine on Sunday – and was only five minutes late. Her daughter Ruth shrugged, “We are outsiders.”
►The parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises canceled trips until June “as we continue to work on our return to service plan to meet the requirements” of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spokesman Andrea DeMarco said in a statement.
►Chinese officials say they are cracking down on vaccine-related crimes. Prosecutors there approved the arrest of 70 suspects involved in 21 vaccine-related fraud, according to the attorney general’s office. One case involved 58,000 doses of counterfeit vaccines using saline, which generated $ 3 million in sales.
► President Joe Biden is extending the federal government-backed mortgage foreclosure ban for three months and expanding a mortgage relief program to provide relief for families struggling financially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
►Governments are asking Biden for more voice on how the federal government is distributing COVID-19 vaccines to local pharmacies and community health centers in their states.
📈 Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 27.7 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 487,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: More than 109.3 million cases and 2.4 million deaths. More than 71.6 million doses of vaccine have been distributed in the United States and about 55.2 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re reading: There is no “giant national campaign” for education on the COVID-19 vaccine. Why? Experts say there is a better way.
Grocery workers were recognized last spring as one of the most indispensable frontline workers in the pandemic. Now, most are waiting for their turn to get the vaccines, and there is little clarity about when that might happen. A decentralized vaccination campaign has resulted in policies that differ from state to state and even from municipality to municipality. For many underpaid but essential workers, this means waiting and hoping.
“Apparently, we are not frontline employees when it comes to getting the vaccine,” said Dawn Hand, who works at a Kroger supermarket in Houston. “That was kind of a shock.”
States will receive a 23% increase in vaccine shipments this week from last week, a 57% increase since President Joe Biden took office, government officials told governors on Tuesday. The number of doses that states will receive will increase from the 8.6 million a week they received during Biden’s first week in office to the 13.5 million that Biden’s COVID-19 coordinator told governors on Tuesday that they will receive now. The White House also announced that it is doubling the number of doses sent directly to local pharmacies to 2 million.
“This program will expand access to neighborhoods across the country,” Jeff Zients, COVID-19 coordinator in Biden, told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview before making his weekly call to governors. “Supply will continue to increase.”
– Maureen Groppe
Closed bars, canceled parades and cold weather are expected to stifle Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans on Tuesday – a stark contrast to last year’s revelry that experts believe contributed to an early rise in COVID- cases. 19 in Louisiana. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the annual pre-Lent festival celebrated over much of the Gulf Coast. But Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards warned tourists that they could not celebrate Mardi Gras as usual.
“If people think they are going to come to Louisiana, anywhere, or New Orleans and get involved in the kind of activities they would have before the pandemic, they are wrong and, frankly, they are not welcome here to do that,” Edwards said.
– N’dea Yancey-Bragg
Vaccines currently in use in the United States can cause temporary side effects that “may affect your ability to perform daily activities,” but the Disease Control and Prevention Center is warning against preventive doses of aspirin or other pain killers before vaccination. The CDC says fever, chills, headaches, pain and tiredness are normal signs that your body is “building protection”. Over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen, aspirin, antihistamines or paracetamol can help with this, says the CDC.
“It is not recommended that you take these drugs before vaccination in order to try to prevent side effects,” says the CDC. “It is not known how these drugs can affect the functioning of the vaccine.”
Japan is struggling to secure special syringes to maximize the number of vaccines used in each bottle of the Pfizer vaccine amid fears that millions of doses may be wasted. Japan, with a population of 126 million, has an agreement for 144 million doses that can vaccinate 72 million people. But without special syringes, the numbers could drop by more than 15%. The government, still hoping to host the Summer Olympics from the end of July, is asking medical device manufacturers to increase the production of low dead space syringes. Nipro Corp. said it plans to increase its monthly capacity.
“We are receiving a request from the Ministry of Health and we need to take action,” Nipro said in a statement to Japan Today. “But it is not something we can do overnight. It takes another four to five months before we can increase it drastically.”
The NBA revealed its health and safety protocols for breaking the All-Star in a memo to the teams, including the protocols for the All-Star game on March 7. The game was not officially announced and Lebron James is among the prominent players who expressed dismay at the idea of conducting an All-Star game in the midst of a pandemic.
All players are required to pass COVID-19 tests while the league takes a break from March 5-10. Players participating in All-Star events – be it the game, dunk contest or 3-point shootout – are required to travel to Atlanta on March 6 by private transport, and participation depends on the return of negative tests on March 6 and March 7.
– Jeff Zillgitt
COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates are dropping across the country, but experts speak in dire terms about what will happen if variants of the virus can emerge this spring. The United States recorded a spike in cases last spring, mainly in the Northeast, last summer in the South and from November to January almost everywhere. As the death toll of COVID-19 in the country approaches half a million people, public health experts fear the possibility of a fourth wave. Three state legislatures have suspended mask prescriptions in recent days, and New York and Massachusetts have eased restaurant seating restrictions in time for Valentine’s Day.
“It’s like we’re trying our best to help the virus, instead of stopping it,” said Theodora Hatziioannou, virologist and associate professor of research at Rockefeller University in New York.
– Karen Weintraub
Contributing: Grace Hauck and James Call, USA TODAY; The Associated Press.