Winter storm delays vaccine shipments to Texas, Florida
President Joe Biden expressed optimism Tuesday that the U.S. vaccine rollout will surpass forecasts, though a large winter storm was stalling efforts to ship pictures this week.
“Before I took office, I set a big goal of administering 100 million shots in the first 100 days,” Biden tweeted Tuesday. “With the progress we’re making I believe we’ll not only reach that, we’ll break it.”
Biden’s purpose had been thought of conservative by consultants who argued that vaccines have to be manufactured, shipped and jabbed rather more shortly for vaccines to develop into available by spring. Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned final week that it will be “open season” for all Americans who need the vaccine by April.
But the timeline stays unclear for the reason that rollout has been marred by an absence of provide, forcing vaccination websites to shut down and main to lengthy traces and hundreds of individuals on ready lists. Biden has additionally mentioned beforehand most Americans will not be vaccinated till the tip of the summer time.
On Tuesday, the winter storm driving icy roads, energy outages and dangerously low temperatures throughout a lot of the nation was snarling traffic from coast to coast and delaying vaccine shipments to Florida and Texas.
Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, mentioned the state has been alerted that shipments had been being delayed. It was unclear what number of doses can be affected and when deliveries would resume. Texas state well being officers, due to obtain greater than 400,000 extra vaccine doses this week, do not count on deliveries till at the least Wednesday. And vaccine appointments within the cities of Houston and Austin had been anticipated to be canceled once more Tuesday due to the extreme winter climate.
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In the headlines:
►Chinese authorities say they’re cracking down on vaccine-related crimes. Prosecutors there have authorised the arrests of 70 suspects concerned in 21 vaccine-related frauds, in accordance to the prosecutor basic’s workplace. One case concerned 58,000 counterfeit vaccine doses utilizing regular saline that drew $3 million in gross sales.
►President Joe Biden is extending a ban on home foreclosures for federally backed mortgages by three months and increasing a mortgage reduction program to present reduction for households struggling financially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
►Governors are asking Biden for extra say in how the federal authorities is distributing COVID-19 vaccines to native pharmacies and neighborhood well being facilities of their states.
►The World Health Organization on Monday licensed use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. The transfer will assist enhance provides for hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide by means of the U.N.’s COVAX effort, which goals to assist vaccinate poorer nations.
►San Francisco is the newest California metropolis to briefly shutter a mass vaccination website due to a lack of vaccine, becoming a member of Los Angeles in pausing inoculations amid a nationwide scarcity, whilst new federal-state vaccination websites open.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has greater than 27.6 million confirmed coronavirus instances and 486,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The international totals: More than 109.2 million instances and a couple of.4 million deaths. More than 70 million vaccine doses have been distributed within the U.S. and about 52.8 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re studying: There’s no “giant national campaign” for COVID-19 vaccine training. Why? Experts say there’s a better way.
Mardi Gras slows its roll amid COVID issues in New Orleans
Closed bars, canceled parades and frigid climate had been anticipated to stifle Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans on Tuesday – a stark distinction from final 12 months’s revelry that consultants imagine contributed to an early surge in COVID-19 instances in Louisiana. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the annual pre-Lenten bash celebrated alongside a lot of the Gulf Coast. But Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards warned vacationers they’d not have the opportunity to rejoice Mardi Gras as typical.
“If people think they’re going to come to Louisiana, anywhere, or New Orleans and engage in the kind of activities they would have pre-pandemic, then they are mistaken and quite frankly they are not welcome here to do that,” Edwards mentioned.
– N’dea Yancey-Bragg
CDC: Don’t take preemptive ache meds forward of vaccination
The vaccines at the moment in use the the U.S. could cause momentary unintended effects that “may affect your ability to do daily activities,” however the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning against preemptive doses of aspirin or different ache killers earlier than vaccination. The CDC says fever, chills, complications, soreness and tiredness are regular indicators that your physique is “building protection.” Over-the-counter medicines resembling ibuprofen, aspirin, antihistamines, or acetaminophen might help with that, the CDC says.
“It is not recommended you take these medicines before vaccination for the purpose of trying to prevent side effects,” the CDC says. “It is not known how these medications may impact how well the vaccine works.”
Syringe scarcity plagues Japanese vaccination effort
Japan is scrambling to secure special syringes to maximize the variety of vaccine pictures used from every vial of Pfizer vaccine amid fears that hundreds of thousands of doses may very well be wasted. Japan, with a inhabitants of 126 million, has a deal for 144 million doses that might vaccinate 72 million folks. But with out particular syringes, the numbers may drop greater than 15%. The authorities, nonetheless hoping to host the Summer Olympics beginning in late July, is asking medical gear producers to enhance output of the low dead-space syringes. Nipro Corp. mentioned it deliberate to enhance its month-to-month capability.
“We are getting a request from the health ministry and we need to take some steps,” Nipro mentioned in a press release to Japan Today. “But it’s not something we can do overnight. It’s another four to five months before we can ramp up sharply.”
NBA outlines protocols for All-Star recreation regardless of pushback from stars
The NBA revealed its health and safety protocols for the All-Star break in a memo to groups, together with protocols for the All-Star recreation on March 7. The recreation has not been formally introduced, and Lebron James is amongst distinguished gamers who expressed dismay on the concept of conducting an All-Star recreation amid a pandemic.
All gamers are required to endure COVID-19 testing whereas the league takes a break March 5-10. Players taking part in All-Star occasions – both the sport, dunk contest or 3-point shootout – are required to journey to Atlanta on March 6 through personal transportation, and participation depends on returning damaging assessments on March 6 and March 7.
– Jeff Zillgitt
Experts worry fourth surge this spring
COVID-19 an infection and hospitalization charges are falling nationwide, however consultants discuss in dire phrases about what is going to occur if variants of the virus are allowed to surge this spring. The U.S. noticed a spike in instances final spring, primarily within the Northeast, final summer time within the South, and November by means of January just about all over the place. As the nation’s loss of life toll from COVID-19 approaches half one million folks, public well being consultants mentioned they dread the opportunity of a fourth wave. Three state legislatures lifted masks mandates in current days, and New York and Massachusetts eased restrictions on restaurant seating in time for Valentine’s Day.
“It’s like we’re trying our best to help the virus rather than stopping it,” mentioned Theodora Hatziioannou, a virologist and analysis affiliate professor on the Rockefeller University in New York City.
– Karen Weintraub
Gov. Andrew Cuomo defends New York’s response in nursing properties
After boasting of forging a profitable battle plan towards COVID-19, Cuomo faces a vital second after an aide admitted to withholding nursing dwelling information from the general public after receiving a federal inquiry. Fallout from the scandal is rising as lawmakers mount a bipartisan push for additional investigation of the Cuomo administration’s COVID-19 response, citing a series of revelations that lifted the veil of secrecy over the true coronavirus loss of life toll for New York nursing properties, which topped 13,000 residents as opposed to the 8,700 beforehand reported.
“Thousands of New Yorkers lost family in nursing homes to COVID-19, a pain made worse by the inability to comfort their loved ones in their final hours,” U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y., wrote Sunday on Twitter. “They deserve answers and accountability.”
Meanwhile, Cuomo launched a lengthy defense on Monday, conceding state officers ought to have launched the nursing dwelling information earlier however struggled to accomplish that due to the pandemic workload and politicized federal inquiry by the Department of Justice below former President Donald Trump.
– David Robinson, New York State Team
ER visits down final 12 months, however overdoses up: Experts blame COVID-19
Many Americans stayed away from the emergency room when the nation went below lockdown for worry of contracting COVID-19 on the hospital. While this led to an general decline in emergency division visits, a recent study exhibits weekly journeys to the ER for drug overdoses had been larger in 2020 than in 2019.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied greater than 180 million ER visits from Dec. 30, 2018, to Oct. 10, 2020, and located that weekly counts of all drug overdoses had been up to 45% larger in 2020 than in 2019, in accordance to the examine revealed Feb. 3 within the peer-reviewed JAMA Psychiatry. Opioid overdoses, particularly, elevated about 29% in contrast to earlier than the pandemic.
Overall visits to the emergency room plummeted when COVID-19 lockdown measures had been applied in March 2020, reducing about 43% in contrast to the identical timeframe in 2019. However, drug overdoses skilled solely a slight lower from March 29 to April 11, about 4% in contrast to 2019, earlier than rising once more.
“That all drug and opioid overdose emergency department visits did not decrease in a similar manner to other emergency department visits is especially compelling, suggesting an increase in overdose burden during the pandemic,” examine authors mentioned.
– Adrianna Rodriguez
Contributing: James Call, USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau; The Associated Press.
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