Updates
Congress Passes $900 Billion Coronavirus Relief Bill, Ending Months-Long Stalemate-NPR
The Senate acted swiftly Monday night, in a 91-7 vote, to approve more than $900 billion for coronavirus assistance, shortly after the House of Representatives passed the package. The aid comes after months of partisan sniping over what elements should be in a relief measure that virtually all lawmakers on Capitol Hill argued was long overdue. The measure now heads to President Trump's desk. In order to avoid a shutdown, since federal agencies would have run out of money at midnight Monday, a … Continue Reading
December 21, 2020
COVID-19 Spikes Follow In Prisons After Inmate Transfers-The Associated Press
Families of men incarcerated at Michigan’s Kinross Correctional Facility believed its remote location would spare it from a deadly COVID-19 outbreak. For a while, they seemed to be right. Kinross, built on the grounds of a former Air Force base in the Upper Peninsula, is closer to Canada than it is to Detroit. Unlike most prisons in Michigan, Kinross had remained almost unscathed by the novel coronavirus with only one case between March and October. But on Oct. 28, corrections officials … Continue Reading
December 21, 2020
Breaking Down The $900B Stimulus Package And $1.4T Omnibus Bill-Politico
Congressional leaders on Sunday night unveiled the highlights of a $900 billion fiscal stimulus package and a $1.4 trillion government funding deal that will deliver critical pandemic aid to millions of Americans and pad federal agency budgets through next September. If passed by both chambers on Monday as expected, the colossal year-end package will provide another round of direct payments, enhanced unemployment benefits and billions of dollars for struggling industries in what still amounts … Continue Reading
December 21, 2020
Shaken By New Coronavirus Strain, World Shuts The Door On Britain-Reuters
A slew of countries closed their borders to Britain on Monday over fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, heightening global panic, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of UK food shortages days before the Brexit cliff edge. India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Jordan and Hong Kong suspended travel for Britons after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a mutated variant of the virus, up to 70% more transmissible, had been identified in the country. Saudi … Continue Reading
December 21, 2020
STAT-Harris Poll: Most Americans Would Support Biden Issuing A Mask Mandate-STAT
Most Americans believe the Biden administration should mandate several steps — such as requiring people to wear masks in public and banning gatherings of 10 or more people — to thwart the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest survey from STAT and The Harris Poll. The poll found that 75% of the public supports the idea of mandating a mask and a similar number believe people should be required to get tested if they feel sick. STAT, … Continue Reading
December 21, 2020
Older People, Some Essential Workers Should Get Vaccines Next, CDC Panel Says-NPR
People who are ages 75 and older and frontline essential workers should be next in line to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a federal advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined Sunday. Those groups follow frontline health care workers and nursing home residents, who have already begun receiving the limited supplies of vaccines available. NPR, … Continue Reading
December 17, 2020
The Coronavirus May Sometimes Slip Its Genetic Material Into Human Chromosomes—But What Does That Mean?-Science Magazine
People who recover from COVID-19 sometimes later test positive for SARS-CoV-2, suggesting their immune systems could not ward off a second attack by the coronavirus or that they have a lingering infection. A study now hints at a different explanation in which the virus hides in an unexpected place. The work, only reported in a preprint, suggests the pandemic pathogen takes a page from HIV and other retroviruses and integrates its genetic code—but, importantly, just parts of it—into people’s … Continue Reading
December 17, 2020
2nd COVID-19 Vaccine Gets Public Review Ahead Of US Decision-The Associated Press
A second COVID-19 vaccine moved closer to joining the U.S. fight against the pandemic Thursday as government advisers convened for a public review of its safety and effectiveness. It’s the next-to-last step for the vaccine developed by drugmaker Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. The panel of physicians and medical researchers is expected to endorse it, followed by the Food and Drug Administration’s OK within hours or days. The Associated Press, … Continue Reading
December 17, 2020
From Navajo Nation To New Orleans, Challenges Arise In Vaccine Roll Out-Reuters
From the wide-open spaces of a U.S. tribal nation to urban hospital emergency rooms, doctors, nurses and delivery people are wrestling with challenges in the roll-out of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine - including delays, anxiety and keeping the drug at just the right level of cold. Oschner Health in Louisiana on Monday got about a tenth of the doses it prepared for at its New Orleans hospital - forcing staffers there to reschedule appointments. Reuters, … Continue Reading
December 17, 2020
Pfizer Decision To Turn Off Temperature Sensors Forced Scramble To Ensure Covid-19 Vaccines Kept Ultra-Cold-STAT
Alast-minute snafu this fall threatened to disrupt the smooth rollout of the first Covid-19 vaccine approved in the United States, according to industry officials. At issue was how to monitor the temperature of the ultra-cold storage containers being used to distribute vials of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech. Pfizer, the officials told STAT, planned to disconnect temperature-monitoring sensors on the containers once they were delivered to health care providers — … Continue Reading
December 17, 2020
'Losing A Generation': Fall College Enrollment Plummets For 1st-Year Students-NPR
According to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse, undergraduate enrollment this fall declined by 3.6% from the fall of 2019. That's more than 560,000 students and twice the rate of enrollment decline seen last year. Most of that decline occurred at community colleges, where enrollment fell by more than 10%, or more than 544,000 students. NPR, … Continue Reading
December 16, 2020
Coronavirus And Public Holidays: What The Data Say-Nature
As worldwide coronavirus cases continue to surge, countries are grappling with how to manage big public holidays such as Christmas and Lunar New Year, which researchers are warning could become superspreader events. “We’re already at a high level of community spread, and we’re about to see a lot of people travelling and gathering indoors,” says Julia Marcus, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. “It’s hard to see any way that this is going to … Continue Reading
December 16, 2020
Potential $900 Billion U.S. COVID-19 Bill To Include Checks For Individuals-Reuters
U.S. congressional negotiators neared a $900 billion deal to address COVID-19, including direct payments to Americans but no financial aid for states and cities and no liability protections for businesses, according to media reports on Wednesday. The potential agreement could come as early as later on Wednesday morning, according to Politico and the Washington Post, which both cited multiple sources involved in or briefed on the ongoing talks. Reuters, … Continue Reading
December 16, 2020
At WTO, A Battle For Access To COVID-19 Vaccines-Devex
High-income countries appear to be maneuvering to avoid a showdown at the World Trade Organization’s General Council meeting, beginning Wednesday, over a proposal to temporarily waive intellectual property protections for all COVID-19 vaccines and other technologies. With the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada already immunizing their citizens and high-income countries laying claim to the vast majority of current and future vaccine doses, supporters of the waiver argue that it is more … Continue Reading
December 16, 2020
Misting The White House Between Administrations Won’t Kill Covid-19 — And It Could Be Harmful, Experts Say-STAT
The federal government is putting $29,000 in taxpayer funds toward a type of cleaning that many experts advise against: misting a disinfectant all over the White House. A Virginia-based contractor will spray a disinfectant mist throughout the East and West Wings before President-elect Biden moves in, according to a federal contract first reported by TMZ and Politico. The same contractor has done the same procedure for the Navy, including at a weapons station in Virginia. But prominent expert … Continue Reading
December 16, 2020
Paycheck-To-Paycheck Nation: Why Even Americans With Higher Income Struggle With Bills-NPR
Today, amid the pandemic, a third of U.S. adults say they are having difficulty covering everyday costs such as food, rent or car payments. While people with the lowest incomes face the biggest challenges, even some households making above $200,000 are straining to pay basic expenses. For many families, walking the tightrope of financial stress, with little to no savings, is hardly a pandemic-specific condition. Over a year ago, more than a third of Americans said they could not cover an … Continue Reading
December 15, 2020
Europe Advances Review Of Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine As Pressure Mounts-The Wall Street Journal
The European Union’s chief drug regulator will accelerate its review of a Covid-19 vaccine after coming under pressure from some governments to authorize the shot, as the continent struggles to contain a wave of cases ahead of the Christmas period. The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday it would meet on Dec. 21, eight days earlier than previously scheduled, to consider authorizing the shot developed by Germany’s BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. The Wall Street Journal, … Continue Reading
December 15, 2020
These Drugs Might Prevent Severe COVID-Scientific American
In the year since the COVID pandemic began, glimmers of hope have come on the horizon. Vaccines are on the way, and the percentage of patients who die has fallen in many places as doctors have learned how to save the sickest patients. These successes are not enough—and they overshadow the more limited progress made toward developing drugs that could prevent mild cases of the disease from worsening. Such treatments are urgently needed because many people will get sick with COVID until vaccines … Continue Reading
December 15, 2020
Poor Countries Face Long Wait For Vaccines Despite Promises-The Associated Press
With Americans, Britons and Canadians rolling up their sleeves to receive coronavirus vaccines, the route out of the pandemic now seems clear to many in the West, even if the rollout will take many months. But for poorer countries, the road will be far longer and rougher. The ambitious initiative known as COVAX created to ensure the entire world has access to COVID-19 vaccines has secured only a fraction of the 2 billion doses it hopes to buy over the next year, has yet to confirm any actual … Continue Reading
December 15, 2020
New Coronavirus Strain Spreading In UK Has Key Mutations, Scientists Say-Reuters
British scientists are trying to establish whether the rapid spread in southern England of a new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is linked to key mutations they have detected in the strain, they said on Tuesday. The mutations include changes to the important “spike” protein that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus uses to infect human cells, a group of scientists tracking the genetics of the virus said, but it is not yet clear whether these are making it more infectious. Reuters, … Continue Reading