Johnson & Johnson’s trials of its single-shot vaccine show 66% efficacy in a global trial, but 85% efficacy against severe disease. Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine trial, meanwhile, showed an efficacy of 89.3%.
There’s a growing dispute between the European Union and AstraZeneca over delays to vaccine deliveries.
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Italy to ease virus restrictions in many regions from Sunday
From CNN’s Valentina DiDonato and Antonia Mortensen
Piazza Venezia Square is reflected in the window of a closed coffee bar following Covid-19 restriction measures in Rome, Italy on January 22.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
Coronavirus restrictions in many parts of Italy will be eased from Sunday, the country’s Health Ministry has announced.
All but five of Italy’s regions will be considered “yellow” under its color-coded system, the ministry said on Friday.
Veneto, the region around Venice, is to go from an orange to a yellow zone, which allows the daytime reopening of bars and restaurants and greater freedom to travel.
Calabria in the south and Emilia-Romagna in the north were also downgraded from orange to yellow.
From Sunday, the regions of Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily, Umbria and the autonomous province of Bolzano will be in the orange zone.
All the other regions and autonomous provinces are in the yellow zone.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Italy had experienced a significant drop in its coronavirus transmission rate.
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Don't wait for teachers to be vaccinated before reopening schools, former US CDC director says
From CNN Health's Andrea Diaz
Dr. Tom Frieden testifies during a subcommittee hearing on May 6, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden says schools can safely reopen as long as the right precautions are taken.
“Classrooms should stay open as long as possible, and reopen as soon as possible – in-person learning is enormously important,” Frieden said during an Axios podcast interview on Friday.
Frieden says effective safety precautions include masks, proper ventilation in school buildings and social distancing to “the extent you can.” He also recommends schools eliminate teacher break rooms and regulate extracurricular activities.
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Biden seeks to intensify public lobbying for Covid-19 relief bill amid the pandemic
When US President Joe Biden intensifies his attention next week to selling Republicans and Democrats on his coronavirus relief bill, he won’t be relying on some of the presidency’s most symbolic powers.
Out, for now, are arm-twisting sessions in the Oval Office or rides into a lawmaker’s district aboard Air Force One. Instead, administration aides are planning remote television hits from the White House, out-of-the-blue phone calls to skeptical Republicans and maybe a stop somewhere within driving distance, according to officials.
Hamstrung by the very pandemic he is working to contain, Biden and his advisers have sharply limited the ways in which he can promote the $1.9 trillion relief bill he has proposed in the opening days of his presidency. Flying around the country to sell the plan is off the table for now, aides said, as Biden works to promote responsible pandemic behavior. Even the idea of visiting the weekly Democratic and Republican Senate luncheons on Capitol Hill is a non-starter, aides said, though – like Biden – many members of Congress have been vaccinated.
It’s not necessarily how Biden would like to be ushering his debut legislative attempt through Congress, particularly since he built an entire career as a senator around attempts to foster bipartisanship through camaraderie on Capitol Hill. So, too, will his famous personal touch with middle-class Americans be sidelined as Air Force One remains in the hangar at Joint Base Andrews. He and his then-boss President Barack Obama used both while mustering support for the 2009 stimulus plan in the earliest days of that administration.
EU will not trigger Brexit protocol amid vaccine export dispute, European Commission says
From CNN’s James Frater in London and Jonny Hallam in Atlanta
In an apparent rethink late Friday, the European Commission issued a statement saying it will not trigger a Brexit clause to introduce emergency export controls on vaccines to Northern Ireland from the bloc.
“In the process of finalisation of this measure, the Commission will ensure that the Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol is unaffected. The Commission is not triggering the safeguard clause,” the statement said.
However, the statement warned that “should transits of vaccines and active substances toward third countries be abused to circumvent the effects of the authorisation system, the EU will consider using all the instruments at its disposal.”
Earlier Friday, the EU startled Belfast, London and Dublin when it said it was willing to use Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol – an emergency measure that could be used by either the UK or the EU to retain stability on the island of Ireland.
If the EU had invoked Article 16, any effort to use Northern Ireland as a back door to the rest of the UK to circumvent export controls would be restricted.
Following discussions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen late Friday, the Irish leader, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, said he “welcomed the decision by the EC not to invoke the safeguard clause of the Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol.”
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Coachella and Stagecoach have been canceled
From CNN's Sarah Moon
People attend the 2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival in Indio, California.
Presley Ann/Getty Images
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival scheduled for April have been canceled under a new health officer order issued by Riverside County on Friday.
The order was issued by Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser “based on concerns of a fall resurgence of Covid-19 both within the county of Riverside and worldwide.”
According to the order, both music festivals attract “hundreds of thousands of attendees from many countries,” which could increase the risk of spread of the coronavirus.
“If Covid-19 were detected at these festivals, the scope and number of attendees and the nature of the venue would make it infeasible, if not impossible, to track those who may be placed at risk,” Dr. Kaiser said.
Both events, which are two of the largest music events held in Southern California, were also canceled last year due to the pandemic.
CNN has reached out to Coachella and Stagecoach for a comment.
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CDC director extends pandemic order halting some evictions
From CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, extended an order Friday halting evictions for some people through March 31.
The CDC said that the pandemic has worsened housing insecurity for many Americans, and evictions of tenants who cannot make rent or housing payments could hinder efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19.
More context: The order, originally issued in September, was previously set to expire on Jan. 31.
It covers people who earn $99,000 or less a year and cannot make payment because of a loss of income or extraordinary medical costs. Tenants must prove they have exhausted efforts to get government assistance to pay rent, are making some effort to provide payment, and will be forced to move to congregate living settings or left homeless by eviction.
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Some states could vaccinate their seniors twice as fast as others, CNN analysis finds
From CNN's Deidre McPhillips
Some states could fully vaccinate their 65-and-older population within two months, but it could take more than twice as long for others, a CNN analysis found.
If individuals age 65 and older were the only people being vaccinated, Alaska could fully vaccinate its seniors – with both shots of the two-dose regimen – within 43 days. In Iowa, Hawaii, Idaho and Florida, it could take more than 130 days, or more than four months.
The analysis considered the total senior population in each state, along with the average pace of vaccine administration over the past seven days, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In four states, more than one in five people are 65 or older, according to data from the US Census Bureau: Maine, Florida, West Virginia and Vermont.
At the current pace of vaccinations, it would take Florida 131 days to fully vaccinate its senior population if they were the only group being vaccinated. However, West Virginia is administering vaccines at a per capita rate that’s about 32% faster than Florida, and could fully vaccinate its senior population in 87 days.
About two weeks ago, the federal government – under the Trump administration – issued new guidance to states to expand vaccine eligibility to adults 65 years old and older, along with health care workers and long-term care residents and staff. But both Florida and West Virginia had adapted their plans to focus on senior populations sooner.
Florida’s vaccination plan has left many frustrated by apparent lack of coordination, but Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended the state’s plan and its emphasis on protecting older people.
“We put seniors first and other states soon followed,” he said at a press conference.
About a quarter of Florida’s senior population – more than 1.1 million people 65 years or older – had received at least one vaccine dose, according to the state’s latest vaccine report.
In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice said in a news conference Monday that nearly 74,000 seniors had received at least one dose of vaccine – about 20% of the state’s 65 and older population.
While vaccine administration may be moving faster in some states, the focus on the senior population may not be as high.
In Michigan, for example, vaccine administration is 17% faster than Florida. But only 17% of seniors in the state have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the state’s vaccine dashboard.
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For some volunteers helping with the Covid-19 vaccination effort, early vaccination is a bonus
From CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
For the many volunteers helping with the nation’s Covid-19 vaccination effort, whether they can get vaccinated themselves depends on the jurisdiction they are in and how many doses happen to be available on any given day.
The US Department of Health and Human Services amended the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act on Thursday, in a move to broaden the pool of eligible vaccinators across the US.
St. Joseph County in South Bend, Indiana, received more than 1,500 responses to their call for volunteers to help with its vaccination effort.
Dr. Robert Riley, a retired family physician, joined the volunteer effort and received a shot of the Moderna vaccine during his first shift. Riley is 63 and was not providing direct patient care before volunteering, so he would not have otherwise received a vaccine.
Sometimes volunteers are offered doses that remain at the end of the day, but because of supply constraints, the county can only commit to vaccinating those who can volunteer 60 hours over the course of three months, said Robin Vida, the health department’s volunteer coordinator.
Many health systems and providers have had to come up with their own criteria for whether and when volunteers can get vaccinated.
LaKieva Williams helps run Georgia Responds, Georgia’s Covid-19 volunteer response effort. Since March, Williams says more than 7,000 Georgians have signed up to perform both medical and administrative tasks.
The Georgia Department of Health said that as a statewide agency, it cannot guarantee all volunteers priority access to vaccines.
“While I think ideally, you want all of your volunteers to be vaccinated we still have to adhere to the phases in the rollout,” Williams said. “The intent is there, but it’s a matter of supply.”
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Nearly 28 million Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the US, according to new CDC data
From CNN’s Deidre McPhillips
A nurse administers a Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at the Park County Health Department on January 28, in Livingston, Montana.
William Campbell/Getty Images
Nearly 28 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported that 27,884,661 total doses have been administered – about 57% of the 49,216,500 doses distributed.
Nearly 22.9 million people have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 4.8 million people have been fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.
Remember: States have 72 hours to report vaccine data, so data published by the CDC may be delayed, and may not necessarily mean all doses were given on the day reported.
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CDC is currently conducting research to determine if two masks are better than one
From CNN’s Naomi Thomas
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki removes two masks as she arrives for a press briefing at the White House on January 22.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently experimenting to find out about the effectiveness of wearing two masks. However, what is most critical is that as many people as possible wear one, Dr. John Brooks, chief medical officer for the CDC Covid-19 Response, said during an Infectious Diseases Society of America briefing Friday.
“Experts have proposed using two masks, or double-masking, where you put a cloth mask with a very high thread count over a medical mask,” Brooks said. “When used this way, the medical mask acts as a filter and then the cloth mask over it adds filtration but also helps provide a better fit to the contours of your face and prevents leaking around the edges.”
Brooks said that there is thinking that this specific combination could block over 90% of more of the respiratory droplets, which is near the level of an N95 respirator.
Brooks shared advice for people who opt to double mask, as well as advice for general mask-wearing, before stressing the importance of as many people as possible wearing them.
“In public health, it is all about choice. The more choices we can offer people, the more likely they are to find something that suits them, and that they’ll adopt,” he said. “Any mask is better than no mask. And regardless of what we use, it’s critical that as many of us as possible mask up.”
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Novavax working on booster shot in response to coronavirus variants
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
Alastair Grant/AP
Biotechnology company Novavax is developing booster shots to help its Covid-19 vaccine protect against newly emerging variants of the coronavirus.
On Thursday, the company announced its vaccine, known as NVX-CoV2373, was found to have an efficacy of 89.3% in a Phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the UK and the vaccine appeared to demonstrate clinical efficacy against some variants of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the announcement also noted:
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The National Guard is supporting US vaccination efforts in 38 states
From CNN's Michael Conte and Ellie Kaufman
Washington National Guard personnel prepare to administer Covid-19 vaccinations in Wenatchee, Washington, on January 26.
David Ryder/Getty Images
National Guard troops are supporting vaccination efforts in 38 states across the country, giving over 51,000 shots a day.
At least 22,900 members of the National Guard are supporting Covid-19 response efforts at over 260 sites nationwide, Major Gen. Jerry L. Fenwick, director of the Office of the Joint Surgeon and National Guard Bureau, said in a briefing with reporters on Friday.
An additional 44,000 troops are serving in “other domestic operations,” he added.
When asked about how many troops who were sent to Washington, DC, tested positive for Covid-19, DC National Guard Deputy Surgeon General Lt. Col. Paul Tumminello said that it’s “about 2%” of the deployment “at any given time.”
“We’re running folks in and out all the time,” he told reporters on a call, “because of this constant ebb and flow of folks and people… that number is a constant number to kind of chase.”
National Guard Adjutant Generals of Washington, California and Michigan also provided an update on Friday about how they are supporting the Covid-19 response in their respective states, including administering Covid-19 tests in each state, assisting with vaccinating populations in each state and providing additional food for each state.
Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, the adjutant general of California, said that 1,484 National Guard members are on duty in the state of California supporting Covid-19 testing sites.
In Michigan, Major Gen. Paul D. Rogers, the state’s adjutant general, said National Guard troops in his state have administered over 215,000 Covid-19 tests and 40,000 vaccinations since Dec. 16. They have also distributed 27 million pounds of food.
Maj. Gen. Bret D. Daugherty, the adjutant general of Washington, said there are between 800 and 1,000 National Guard members deployed in the state right now supporting the Covid-19 response. Their team is “capable of administering about 1,000 shots per day per team,” Daugherty said. He added that they have administered 9,000 shots in the past four days.
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New York will receive 16% more vaccine doses starting next week, governor says
From CNN's Brian Vitagliano
Health workers prepare to administer Covid-19 vaccines at a vaccination site in Harlem, New York, on January 15.
Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images
New York State will receive 16% more vaccine doses for the next three weeks starting next week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a news conference today.
Cuomo said New York has used all of the allocation that the state has received from weeks 1 through 6 and is now starting to use the 250,400 doses that have been arriving this week.
The governor has asked local governments not to schedule vaccine appointments until they have the allocations in hand.
A mass vaccination site will be opening at Yankee Stadium, but Cuomo did not confirm a date when it will come online.
Cuomo announced “safe marriage receptions” can resume March 15, following certain guidelines. All patrons that attend an event will have to be tested, venues cannot exceed 50% capacity up to 150 people, and the event must be approved by local health department, Cuomo said.
“We are developing guidance much like marriage receptions where you can do testing and monitoring, and the local health department can monitor it,” Cuomo said
Cuomo said the numbers are going down: “The post-holiday surge reductioncontinues,” he said.
The New York State positivity rate is 4.65%, the lowest since December 11th, Cuomo said. At least 12,579 positive cases have been reported, there have been 151 deaths, according to the governor, and 73% of all hospital workers have been vaccinated to date.
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Coronavirus variants projected to be more dominant in US by the end of March, Fauci says
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
from the White House
The coronavirus variants circulating globally are projected to become more dominant in the United States by the spring, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House news briefing.
“We have a situation where there have now been reported in very specific places, in South Carolina for example, the isolate or the mutant that is the 351 [B.1.351, the Covid-19 variant first spotted in South Africa],” Fauci said. “That seems to have a very good fitness for spread, so whether or not that’s going to ultimately take over in the sense of being dominant is unclear by now. The projection that is made with regard to the UK [variant] is that probably by the end of March, the beginning of April, it actually will become more dominant in this country.”
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"We should be treating every case as if it's a variant," CDC director says
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
from the White House
Every Covid-19 case in the United States now should be treated as if it is caused by one of the newly identified coronavirus variants, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a White House news briefing on Friday.
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Fauci calls coronavirus variants "a wake-up call" for all of us
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
from White House
The emergence of coronavirus variants is a “wake-up call,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House news briefing on Friday.
Multiple variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 are circulating around the world, including the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom, B.1.351 first identified in South Africa and P. 1 variant first identified in Brazil.
“When these variants were first recognized, it became clear that we had to look at, in vitro in the test tube, whether the antibodies that were induced by the vaccines that we had available would actually neutralize these new mutants,” Fauci said.
Recent studies from vaccine makers Johnson & Johnson and Novavax have shown some protection against variants.
“What we know now from this study —namely the J&J and the Novavax study — that antigenic variation, i.e. mutations lead to different lineage, do have clinical consequences,” Fauci said.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the first two cases of the of the B.1.351 variant, which was officially first detected in South Africa, were identified in South Carolina and announced yesterday – and the cases were identified in different parts of the state and are not believed to be linked.
Walensky added that earlier this week, Minnesota identified the first US case of the P. 1 variant, which recently emerged in Brazil.
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White House Covid-19 adviser praises 7 states on vaccine administration
From CNN's Besty Klein
White House Covid-19 senior adviser Andy Slavitt praised a select group of states on their vaccination deployment efforts.
Five of those states — Alaska, West Virginia, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota — are led by Republican governors.
Slavitt said the administration is accelerating the process of vaccinating the country “as quickly and as safely as possible,” noting that the seven-day average of 1.2 million vaccines administered per day is “a base to build from in the coming days, weeks, and months.”
The challenges the administration faces, he said, are “increasing the supply of vaccines safely and more rapidly and speeding up the time it takes to administer them efficiently, and more importantly, equitably.”
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CDC director says US is ramping up surveillance and sequencing of Covid-19 variants
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
from White House
US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that officials continue to remain concerned about Covid-19 variants.
The US is “rapidly ramping up surveillance and sequencing activities as we work to closely monitor and identify variants as they emerge,” she said during a White House coronavirus briefing.
Walensky said that now is not the time to travel, and she encouraged all Americans to wear masks, practice social distancing and get vaccinated when it is available.
More on the variants: At least four coronavirus variants have been identified. Scientists are not surprised to see the coronavirus changing and evolving — it’s what viruses do, after all. And with so much unchecked spread across the US and other parts of the world, the virus is getting plenty of opportunity to do just that.
What scientists most fear is that one will mutate to the point that it causes more severe disease, bypasses the ability of tests to detect it or evades the protection provided by vaccination. While some of the new variants appear to have changes that look like they could affect immune response, it’s only by a matter of degree.
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Young widows who lost their husbands to Covid-19 are separated by the pandemic but connected in grief
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
CNN
Pamela Addison’s husband Martin was going to take her to a lighthouse for their sixth anniversary. It was a surprise. But she only found out about it after he had died of Covid-19.
“I felt so alone after Martin died. So I thought I was the only young widow,” she said.
She wrote about her story in her local paper. When Kristina Scorpo read it, she decided to reach out.
“She knows exactly how I feel, and I know exactly how she feels,” Scorpio said.
Scorpo’s husband Frank died on Easter Sunday. Their baby boy was just six months old. Her older son was not even five.
That’s what gave her the inspiration to start an online group called “Young widows and widowers.” Soon, the group became the place to go for Whitney Parker and Diana Ordonez to go.
Ordonez’s husband Juan was taken to the hospital in the middle of the night as he battled Covid-19. He never came home. For their five-year-old daughter Mia, it changed everything.
“She tells me, ‘I’m afraid something is going to happen to you. I’m afraid you’re going to die.’ And so she, you know, she just can’t go to sleep,” Ordonez said.
“For weeks after he passed, I would wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and I would reach for my phone thinking I missed the call from the hospital. And then you realize, no, you know, he already passed. You have to like tell yourself the story again,” she added.
Parker’s husband Leslie called her from the hospital crying and said he was scared. Two days later, she heard he had died. When she told her daughter, she said:
The women have never met but even in isolation, group members talk together to grieve their losses and support each other in healing, a reminder that Covid-19 claims lives but also devastates the lives of many loved ones in its wake.
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European Union adopts measures regulating vaccine exports
From CNN's Schams Elwazer, Nada Bashir and James Frater
The European Commission has adopted new measures making export of Covid-19 vaccines subject to export authorization, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in Brussels Friday.
“The measure is time limited and specifically applies to those Covid-19 vaccines that were agreed by advance purchase agreements. The measure is intended to run until the end of March,” he added.
“The protection and safety of our citizens is a priority and the challenges we now face left us with now other choice but to act.”
Dombrovskis said during a press briefing that new measures regulating the export of coronavirus vaccines from the bloc are “not targeting any specific country,” stressing that the measure has been introduced to enhance transparency.
Some of the countries the commission has outlined which are to be exempt from export measures include European Free Trade Association members Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein and six western Balkan nations and any of the 92 low- and middle-income countries in the COVAX recipient list.
The United Kingdom is not on its list of exemptions.
Speaking alongside Dombrovskis, European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said that the EU is not implementing the new measures to protect itself against any specific country, but rather to “ensure access to vaccines for European citizens and, of course, beyond.”
“We are not in competition or in a race against any country,” Kyriakides said.
“The only race we are in is against this virus, and this is what has been at the center of every single piece of work that we have been doing for almost a year,” she added.
This post was updated with new details about the countries that will be exempt from export measures.
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CDC director hopeful US schools can reopen soon as a result of teacher vaccinations and mitigation efforts
From CNN's Naomi Thomas
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Friday that she is hopeful that schools can reopen safely by relying on a combination of teacher vaccination and mitigation measures.
“In most states, if not all states, teachers should be eligible for vaccination now,” Walensky said on NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on Today.
Even if they can’t get vaccinated yet, Walensky said “they should be early in queue, and so they should be getting it soon.”
Walensky also referenced data released by CDC earlier this week and looked at how K-12 schools in Wisconsin prevented spread of Covid-19.
“We need to have the mitigation efforts that have been, you know, demonstrated to work - masking, distancing, low density classrooms – that has demonstrated that we can open schools safely,” she said.
“Coupled with teacher vaccination, I hope, in the weeks ahead, would suggest that we can open schools safely,” she said.
But, she noted, schools need funding and the resources to make sure that they can get there.
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EU regulator recommends approval for AstraZeneca vaccine
From CNN's Tara John, Laura Smith-Spark, Chris Liakos and James Frater
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Europe’s medicines regulator on Friday recommended that the European Union’s approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
The EMA has said they have assessed the data on “data, quality and efficacy” of the vaccine, which will assure EU citizens that the vaccine would meet the required standards and safeguards.
This is the third Covid-19 vaccine that EMA has recommended for authorization.
The long-awaited decision from the EMA came after several EU countries warned they were running out of vaccine doses, and as coronavirus deaths pile up across the continent.
Some background: For the past week, the EU and AstraZeneca have been locked in an acrimonious dispute over vaccine supplies. A week ago, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant said it would not be able to deliver as many doses as the European Union expected – upending the bloc’s vaccination plans.
The EMA’s authorization came a day after the German vaccine commission said it would not recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged 65 or over, citing insufficient data.
Read more on the EU regulator’s authorization of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine here:
Biden "encouraged" by Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine news, White House says
From CNN's Betsy Klein
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
President Joe Biden is “encouraged” about Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine news.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, but 85% effective against severe disease. The company plans to submit an application to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for the vaccine next week.
In the meantime, Psaki said, Biden continues to urge Americans to mask up and follow public health guidelines “until it’s their turn to get vaccinated.”
She declined to “get ahead of the experts” who will brief virtually at 11:00 am and will discuss the new vaccine news further.
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Infectious disease expert: "These are really, in my mind, three almost equivalent vaccines"
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
After Johnson & Johnson announced its Covid-19 vaccine’s efficacy data, infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm says he assesses the vaccine to be equivalent to Moderna and Pfizer based on the study released.
He highlighted that the vaccine’s study shows that the “protection got better the farther you got out from the vaccination. And that actually if we had followed this several more months, it might have been an equal, if not superior vaccine to what we’re seeing with Moderna and Pfizer.”
Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, but 85% effective against severe disease, the company announced Friday, adding that the vaccine was 72% effective against moderate and severe disease in the US.
Vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna that are already in the US market are about 95% effective overall against Covid-19.
Osterholm explained that “we’re on a vaccine journey” at the moment but there are no concerns around safety.
“We’re going to be learning a lot about these vaccines over the course of the next three to six months,” he said. “We’ll have to keep sorting this out. Not sorting out to look at safety. Not sorting it to look at whether you should get it or not. Get it. But we’re going to be constantly re-evaluating it. What’s the best way to protect the most people over time? And that may be that you will be getting a booster dose on a routine basis with one or more vaccines. So I know it’s confusing right now, but I think, get your first dose now. Protect as many people as possible.”
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Johnson & Johnson's vaccine shows "no safety concern," company official says
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
A Johnson & Johnson official on Friday described the safety profile of the company’s coronavirus vaccine as “vanilla,” and said it shows no reason for concern.
Mammen said during the call that there were no incidents of anaphylaxis and no “imbalances” between the vaccine and placebo when it came to safety.
“What we do see is the standard in a few percent of people – the standard transient fever, sometimes pain in the arm, sometimes a little bit of fatigue,” Mammen said.
When asked about whether deaths had occurred, Mammen responded that there were deaths in the trial 28 days after vaccination, but they were among those who received a placebo.
Earlier today, the company announced its single-shot Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, but 85% effective against severe disease.
Johnson & Johnson plans to submit an application to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine next week.
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Johnson & Johnson plans to submit an emergency use application to FDA next week, company official says
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
A dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is pictured during a clinical trial on December 15, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado.
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images
Johnson & Johnson plans to submit an application to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine next week.
The company will apply for an EUA “middle to late next week,” Dr. Mathai Mammen, Janssen’s global head of research and development, said during a call with reporters on Friday morning. The call was held along with officials from the National Institutes of Health. Janssen is the vaccine arm of Johnson & Johnson.
Once an application is submitted, “The FDA really looks very, very carefully at the data in each age group and in each demographic group,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during the call.
If the vaccine is authorized for emergency use, Mammen said, “Our plan is to have supply immediately upon launch.”
About the vaccine: Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, but 85% effective against severe disease, the company announced Friday.
The vaccine was 72% effective against moderate and severe disease in the US, the company said.
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Coronavirus long-hauler: I was an active mom of four, but now I don't get out of bed most days
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
Rebecca Meyer, a previously healthy 31-year-old mom, has been battling coronavirus since March.
“We’re still very much in the symptom management phase of my sickness…10, 11 months in,” Meyer told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.
She has been hospitalized about seven times, and usually stays two to three weeks, she said.
“During that course, they try to run every test they can and they hit a wall at some point. And they’re like, ‘do you want to be miserable in the hospital or do you want to be miserable in your bed?’ And I’d much rather be in my bed,” she said.
Meyer said she and her family can only try to remain hopeful about the future.
“This is our life right now. It feels like forever, but hopefully that’s not the case. And that’s all we can do at this point,” she said.
Her message? Continue to take Covid-19 seriously.
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Vaccinations are "the best way” to prevent coronavirus from evolving further, Fauci says
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard and Maggie Fox
Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks during a White House press briefing on January 21 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 will continue to evolve – but one way to prevent further mutations is to vaccinate the public, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a call with reporters on Friday morning.
Some context: At least four coronavirus variants have been identified. Scientists are not surprised to see the coronavirus changing and evolving — it’s what viruses do, after all. And with so much unchecked spread across the US and other parts of the world, the virus is getting plenty of opportunity to do just that.
What scientists most fear is that one will mutate to the point that it causes more severe disease, bypasses the ability of tests to detect it or evades the protection provided by vaccination. While some of the new variants appear to have changes that look like they could affect immune response, it’s only by a matter of degree.
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Expert explains why he'd take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said that he is eager to review all of the data from Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 single-shot vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, and 85% efficacy against severe disease, the company announced. The vaccine was 72% effective against moderate and severe disease in the US, according to the company.
“Were it me, were I not able to get the mRNA vaccine and I only had the choice of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, I would take it assuming that the data look good as we look at the FDA. I would take it in a second knowing there’s probably a second-dose trial out there, which is likely to show it’s even more effective,” he said.
The data “overall are encouraging, in that it can prevent you from being hospitalized and from dying,” he added.
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Johnson & Johnson official praises company's Covid-19 vaccine: "This vaccine is for everyone"
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
Johnson & Johnson officials praised their vaccine’s 85% efficacy against severe Covid-19 during a phone call with reporters on Friday morning. The call was held along with officials from the National Institutes of Health.
“We have really good efficacy, same level of protection, across all age groups, from the very young to the middle age to the very old. We have the same efficacy across race and ethnicity,” Mammen said. “This vaccine is for everyone.”
Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, but 85% effective against severe disease, the company announced Friday.
The vaccine was 72% effective against moderate and severe disease in the US, the company said.
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Scientist says UK coronavirus variant projected to dominate in Belgium by March
From James Frater
The coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom is projected to soon become the dominant strain of coronavirus in Belgium, Emmanuel André, a leading microbiologist at Belgium’s National Reference Laboratory for Covid-19, said on Friday.
“This [variant] is having a reproduction rate which is — there is still a margin of error — between 1.5 and 1.9, so there’s clearly an exponential phenomenon that is starting now,” he added.
According to the National Reference Laboratory, based at KU Leuven, the UK variant could represent “about 90 percent to 95 percent” of infections in Belgium by early March.
Pressed on whether government restrictions would be enough to stem the spread of the new variant, André noted that while current measures are “quite strict,” there is a need for them to be reinforced.
“Belgium is a small country so things can start very rapidly…we need to be very careful, or it goes up,” André warned.
“The health system, the prevention system, the testing and tracing and so on, has continuously improved in the last year, but it’s clear today that it’s not managing with this more infectious variant,” he added.
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Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine shows 66% efficacy in trial, but 85% efficacy against severe disease
From CNN's Michael Nedelman, Elizabeth Cohen and Maggie Fox
Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center investigational pharmacy technician Sara Berech prepares a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for a clinical trial on December 15, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado.
Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images
Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, but 85% effective against severe disease, the company announced Friday.
The vaccine was 72% effective against moderate and severe disease in the US, the company said.
It’s a striking difference from vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, and it may give pause to people uncertain about which vaccine to get or when they can get one. The vaccines already on the market in the US are about 95% effective overall against symptomatic Covid-19, with perhaps even higher efficacy against severe cases.
Experts say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, developed by its vaccine arm Janssen, will still be useful against the pandemic in the United States and around the world, even if the single-dose vaccine doesn’t become the first choice for many.
For Johnson & Johnson, efficacy against moderate and severe ranged from one country to another: 72% in the US, 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa. This was measured from starting one month after the shot.
In South Africa, 95% of cases in the trial were due to a variant known as B.1.351, which is known to be more contagious and carries mutations that may make the virus less susceptible to the antibody immune response – including antibodies prompted by vaccination.
With that variant, “we have a lower protection against milder forms of Covid than we did in the United States, where there were more typical circulating variants,” Dr. Mathai Mammen, the company’s global head of research and development, told CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Even those who got moderate cases of Covid-19 in the trial tended to develop a milder course and fewer symptoms, he added.
But for Mammen, the key result was how effective the vaccine was at preventing severe disease – regardless of variant or age group.
From one month after the shot, all hospitalizations and deaths occurred in the placebo group.
The results are based on an analysis of more than 44,000 participants in eight countries, with 468 total cases of Covid-19 split between those receiving the vaccine or placebo. The results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the company said it plans to do so “in the coming weeks.”
Johnson & Johnson is expected to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration next week for emergency use authorization, which Mammen said could come by late February.
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Coronavirus restrictions intensified in UAE as cases reach record high
From Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi and Kareem Khadder in Jerusalem
Tourists wearing protective masks walk near the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday, January 27.
Christopher Pike/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The United Arab Emirates will introduce more restrictions to fight the spread of new coronavirus variants as the country continues to record their highest daily cases, UAE officials saidFriday.
The new measures include tighter restrictions on entertainment venues, more testing for incoming travelers and further limiting gatherings, the director of strategic communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hend al Otaiba, said on Twitter.
As other cities and countries locked down, Dubai – which is heavily dependent on tourism – welcomed visitors over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Citing the increase in Covid-19 cases, the UK on Thursday banned direct flights from the UAE, one week after deciding to shut a travel corridor between the two countries. Other countries have also imposed travel bans on the UAE, including Denmark, which temporarily suspended flights.
However, UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps emphasized that British, Irish and third country nationals with residence rights arriving from the United Arab Emirates would only need to isolate at home and not in a hotel.
Read more about how the UK’s Covid-19 travel ban will affect the world’s busiest air route here:
German officials expect EU approval on AstraZeneca vaccine without age restrictions, despite advice on over 65s
From CNN's Nadine Schmidt and Claudia Otto
Klaus Cichutek, President of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, addresses a press conference in Berlin, Germany, on January 29.
Hannibal Hanschke/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
German officials expect the EU’s medicines regulator, The European Medicines Agency (EMA) to approve AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine without age restrictions, despite a previous German recommendation that the vaccine should not be given to people over the age of 65.
Cichutek’s remarks come just a day after Germany’s vaccine commission said it recommended that the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford should not be given to people aged over 65 years old due to insufficient data.
According to Germany’s Interior Ministry, Germany’s own vaccine commission, STIKO, found there is insufficient data on the “effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people over 65 years of age.”
While the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to issue its approval without restrictions, this will likely not be the case for the German vaccine commission STIKO.
Spahn added that the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be authorized in Germany for use in people aged over 65, but the government is still aiming to vaccinate all people over the age of 80 by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
So far, Germany has administered the coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
Some background:
As of Friday, according to Germany’s health agency the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), 3.5 million coronavirus vaccines have been distributed across the country with 2.4 million vaccinations administered.
But as the EU experiences a vaccine shortfall, Spahn warned Germany too should expect “some weeks” of shortages.
RKI head Lothar Wieler told journalists on Friday that although Germany is “on a good path,” with infection numbers declining, more cases of new coronavirus variants are being confirmed, putting increased pressure on the country’s hospitals.
According to RKI, 14,022 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Germany as of Friday, bringing the country’s total number of cases reported since the beginning of the pandemic to 2,192,850.
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EU publishes vaccine contract with AstraZeneca amid dispute over delays
From CNN's James Frater and Chris Liakos
An AstraZeneca office building is pictured in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, January 29.
Francisco Seco/AP
The European Commission has published the redacted contract signed with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the purchase of its coronavirus vaccine for European Union member states.
Amid an escalating row, the EU asked AstraZeneca to agree to publish the contract – signed on August 27 – following the pharmaceutical giant’s announcement of delays and reductions in deliveries due to production issues. Brussels has demanded doses produced at UK manufacturing sites be used to make up for the shortfall, saying AstraZeneca is contractually obliged to do so.
The publication of the contract comes after differing claims from the two parties as to its contents. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told the Italian newspaper la Repubblica on Tuesday that the company was not able to guarantee the timing of EU deliveries because countries such as the United Kingdom were quicker to finalize orders. He said that while the UK contract, signed earlier, stipulated the country would be supplied first, the later EU contract was on a “best effort” basis – a contention the Commission has disputed.
The details of the vaccine delivery schedule have been redacted from the published document.
Earlier this week, Belgian authorities conducted an inspection of AstraZeneca’s Belgian site –- at the request of the European Commission –- to ensure that the delay in the delivery of the vaccines was “indeed due to a production problem at the Belgian site.”
On Friday, the European Commission is expected to announce new export restrictions on vaccines manufactured in the EU, requiring companies to obtain authorization before export.
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In a battle over coronavirus lockdowns, some of Israel's ultra-Orthadox Jews are clashing with authorities
From CNN's Sam Kiley
As protests against coronavirus restrictions spring up around the world, in Israel, clashes between ultra-Orthodox Jews and authorities have become an almost daily occurrence.
At the heart of the tensions are the refusal to observe tough lockdown regulations that ban gatherings of more than five people inside and 10 outdoors.
Bnei Brak, a largely ultra-Orthodox city of more than 200,000, and the small Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim have seen the worst of the violence.
The atmosphere has become so febrile that some Haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox are collectively known, have pinned yellow Star of David badges on their jackets and labeled recent police crackdowns in Bnei Brak as “Kristallnacht,” referencing the 1938 attack on Jews in Nazi Germany.
Some background:
The rate of Covid-related deaths in people over 65 among the ultra-Orthodox was estimated last December to be about 3.6% higher than the Israeli norm, according to the country’s health ministry.
Health ministry data shows Haredi communities to be suffering infection rates of well over 20% of those tested, and ultra-Orthodox patient admissions are among the highest in the country.
As global coronavirus cases have surpassed 100 million, and countries around the world struggle with new coronavirus variants and vaccine shortfalls, protests against lockdown restrictions are becoming increasingly common.
Read more on Israel’s ultra-Orthadox Jews clashing with authorities here:
Coronavirus variants can be defeated with the right tools, says senior White House adviser
From CNN's Madeline Holcombe
A senior White House adviser offered hope in the face of worrying new Covid-19 variants on Thursday, saying they can be defeated with the right approach.
South Carolina has confirmed two cases of the variant first identified in South Africa, a strain more contagious than those previously seen.
If the variants spread rapidly, they could add 85,000 American deaths to the projected death toll by May, bringing the US total to up to 620,000 deaths, according to a forecast Thursday from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
Experts say they believe current vaccines will still be effective against the variants, but officials are still working to close the gap between the available doses and the number administered to Americans.
Read more about how the US can defeat new Covid-19 variants with the “right tools” here:
Novavax says Covid-19 vaccine is 89% effective in UK trial, but less so in South Africa
By CNN's Jacqueline Howard, Isa Soares and Lauren Said-Moorhouse
A vial of the Phase 3 Novavax coronavirus vaccine is seen ready for use during a trial at St. George's University hospital in London in October Oct. 7, 2020. Novavax Inc. said Thursday Jan. 28, 2021 that its COVID-19 vaccine appears 89% effective based on early findings from a British study and that it also seems to work — though not as well — against new mutated strains of the virus circulating in that country and South Africa. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Alastair Grant/AP
A new Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax was 89% effective and appeared to offer protection against some variants of the coronavirus in a clinical trial conducted in the UK, the American biotech firm has announced.
Based on based on results from a Phase 3 trial conducted in the UK, the vaccine was found to be 95.6% effective against the original coronavirus and 85.6% effective against the variant first detected in the UK.
However, the vaccine appeared to be less effective against against a variant first identified in South Africa. The shot showed 60% efficacy among those without HIV in a separate Phase 2b study conducted in that country, the company said.
Novavax is also currently conducting a Phase 3 clinical study in the United States and Mexico and a Phase 1/2 continuation in the US and Australia, data from which are expected as soon as early first quarter 2021.
South Korean Christian groups apologize for role in spreading Covid-19
CNN’s Jake Kwon in Seoul
Several prominent South Korean Christian groups have apologized for their role in spreading Covid-19 on Friday after acknowledging worsening infections in the country induced by Church groups not practicing social distancing.
In a joint press conference, The National Council of Churches in Korea, alongside the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations (YMCA and YWCA), said some of the country’s Christians had prioritized religious freedoms over public health.
The groups urged Christians across South Korea to cooperate with public health orders.
The South Korean health ministry announced Friday that 344 recent community cases are linked to a group of Christian schools across the country.
According to the latest data from John Hopkins University, since the beginning of the pandemic, South Korea has suffered 77,395 Covid-19 cases with 1,399 deaths.
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Israel's health data suggests Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may be more effective than we thought
From CNN’s Amir Tal and Elizabeth Cohen
A Israeli healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine to a woman at the Kupat Holim Clalit clinic in Jerusalem, on January 14
Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
New data from the Israel’s Ministry of Health suggests the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines may be even more effective than previously thought.
The data, which looked at more than 700,000 fully vaccinated people in Israel, found that only .04 percent of people contracted Covid-19, according to the head of Israel’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Sharon Alroy Preis at a press conference on Thursday.
The type of vaccine Israel has mostly used is the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine with a small number of doses from Moderna. The two vaccines use the same technology, and in clinical trials were found to be about 95% effective.
Some background:
Israel began its vaccination campaign on December 20. The data released Thursday looked at 715,425 vaccinated people who were at least one week past their second dose, giving the vaccines time to kick in and provide immunity. Of those people, only 317 people became sick with Covid-19 and 16 people were hospitalized.
The data sampled many more people than the Pfizer and Moderna Phase 3 clinical trials. Approximately 75,000 people participated in those trials, with half receiving the vaccine and half receiving a placebo.
The two vaccines have been rolled out in several countries including the US, Canada and some European nations. The UK was the first country in the world to inoculate patients with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in December last year.
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Can vaccines save the Tokyo Olympics?
From CNN's George Ramsay
A monument depicting the Olympic rings is seen in front of Tokyo's National Stadium, the main venue for the Olympics and Paralympics, in January 2020.
Last November, three weeks before the first vaccine doses became publicly available in the United Kingdom, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said he was hopeful an effective vaccine would help the Games to proceed safely.
Fast-forward to January 2021 and organizers may not be able to rely on vaccine rollout in the way they might have hoped as delivery delays have hindered the rollout process, particularly across Europe.
Bolivia receives first batch of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines from Russia
From CNN's Eric Cheung
Bolivia has received its first batch of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, making it the second country in Latin America to use the Russian-made vaccine in its fight against Covid-19, the Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
The shipment, which totaled 20,000 vaccine doses, arrived in Bolivia’s capital La Paz on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement.
On December 30, Russia signed an agreement with Bolivia to provide the South American nation with enough doses of Sputnik V for 2.6 million people.
Some context: Argentina was the first country in Latin America to administer the use of Sputnik V vaccines, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Argentina began inoculating its citizens with Sputnik V in late December, according to its President Alberto Fernandez.
Several Latin America countries have also reached agreements with Russia to import the vaccine. On Tuesday, Mexico said the Sputnik V vaccine will be delivered to the country “soon,” while Venezuela also formalized an agreement with Russia to purchase it in late December.
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Maskless crowds pack Australian Open tennis exhibition in Covid-free Adelaide
From CNN's Ben Westcott
Thousands of cheering fans packed the stands on Friday to watch some of tennis’ biggest stars warm up for the Australian Open – with hardly a face mask to be seen.
In an unusual scene for the coronavirus pandemic, the 4,000 crowd sat cheek by jowl as big hitters including Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka emerged from their 14-day quarantine to play exhibition matches ahead of the first grand slam of the year in Melbourne next month.
The scene prompted joy on social media.
Australia has now had 12 days without a local infection in any of its states or territories, Health Minister Greg Hunt said at a news conference on Friday.
EU expected to place export restrictions on vaccines
From CNN's James Frater and Schams Elwazer
The European Commission is expected to decide Friday on a “transparency and authorization mechanism for the export of vaccines” from the European Union following a dispute with vaccine manufacturers over reduced supplies to the bloc, the Commission’s Chief Spokesman Eric Mamer said.
Two EU officials said Thursday that it was not an export ban – instead, companies wanting to export coronavirus vaccines from the bloc would need to notify the national governments and wait for authorization.
In a letter to several European leaders on Thursday, European Council President Charles Michel said he “welcomed” the European Commission’s proposal.
Michel added that if “no satisfactory solution” is found with vaccine manufacturers to resolve the supply issue, the EU should “make use of all legal means and enforcement measures at our disposal.”
The new mechanism would not impact humanitarian aid or Covax, the global initiative aiming to distribute some 2 billion vaccines to poorer countries.
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"Long Covid" still puzzles doctors but treatment is possible
From CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas
A nurse cares for Covid-19 patients in a makeshift intensive care unit at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, on January 21.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Medical professionals are working to understand more about a condition they are calling “long Covid,” among patients who experience lingering symptoms months after recovering from coronavirus.
A study recently published in the journal The Lancet found that of 1,733 coronavirus patients treated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, 76% were still experiencing at least one symptom six months after their symptoms began.
Doctors have reported that the severity of Covid-19 illness may have little impact on whether patients experience long Covid symptoms, Hernandez-Romieu said.
Dr. Allison Navis, an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said one of the most common symptoms of long Covid is called “brain fog.”
“Brain fog is a symptom. It is not a diagnosis, and it means many different things to different people,” Navis said. “Oftentimes it’s a combination of short-term memory issues, concentration, or word-finding speech difficulty.”
Navis said brain fog does not appear to have a clear connection to the severity of Covid-19 infection, age or other risk factors. She said doctors have observed these symptoms in younger patients – including children and adolescents – who had mild coronavirus and were previously healthy.
In the absence of a broad diagnosis or treatment plan for people who experience long Covid, doctors have been targeting specific symptoms for treatment, Navis said.
Here's what we know about new coronavirus variants
From CNN's Maggie Fox
Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks during a news conference at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 8, 2020.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
A variant suspected of helping fuel a surge of coronavirus in Brazil’s Amazon region shows up in Minnesota. Another that’s been worrying officials in South Africa pops up in two places in South Carolina.
Scientists are not surprised to see the coronavirus changing and evolving – it’s what viruses do, after all. And with so much unchecked spread across the United States and other parts of the world, the virus is getting plenty of opportunity to do just that.
Four of the new variants are especially worrisome.
What scientists most fear is that one will mutate to the point that it causes more severe disease, bypasses the ability of tests to detect it or evades the protection provided by vaccination. While some of the new variants appear to have changes that look like they could affect immune response, it’s only by a matter of degree.
Governments are already reacting. Colombia banned flights from Brazil, and Brazil banned flights from South Africa. It’s almost certainly too late to stop the spread, and there’s some indication the mutations in these variants are arising independently and in multiple places.
Read more on what’s known about the top four variants:
Mexico's Covid-19 death toll is now third highest in the world
From CNN's Eric Cheung
Mexico’s coronavirus death toll surpassed India’s on Thursday, making it the country with the third highest number of Covid-19 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
JHU’s data shows that Mexico has reported 155,145 Covid-19 deaths since the pandemic began, while India has reported 154,010.
India has a population of 1.35 billion, more than 10 times that of Mexico.
This comes as Mexico has been battling a worsening outbreak of Covid-19. On Sunday, the country’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tested positive for the virus. Mexico’s richest man, Carlos Slim Helú, has also tested positive and is now recovering, his son announced on social media Tuesday.
On Thursday, Mexico’s Health Ministry reported 18,670 new Covid-19 cases and 1,506 additional fatalities.
The two countries with the most Covid-19 deaths are the United States and Brazil, according to JHU data.
The US reported 164,665 new Covid-19 cases and 3,872 virus-related deaths on Thursday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
That raises the national total to at least 25,762,726 confirmed infections and 433,067 fatalities.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
Vaccine distribution: At least 48,386,275 vaccine doses have been distributed and at least 26,193,682 shots administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
South Korea detects more than 300 Covid-19 cases linked to religious schools
From CNN's Jake Kwon in Seoul
South Korean health authorities have completed the testing of all 40 branches of unauthorized religious schools linked to the latest coronavirus cluster in the country, Health Ministry official Yoon Tae-ho said in a briefing.
Authorities started investigating various branches of the educational institution run by the International Education Mission (IEM) School earlier in the week, when nearly 300 new Covid-19 infections were reported last Tuesday from one of the schools in Daejeon city.
After testing all members of the school, a total of 344 cases were detected in the 40 facilities, Yoon said on Friday. Yoon added that the contact tracing of the patients is ongoing and authorities will test other churches linked to the religious group.
Yoon said further nationwide plans in social distancing measures will be announced on Sunday. The current restrictions expire on Sunday.
South Korea reported 445 local and 24 imported cases for Thursday. Another 13 Covid-19 deaths were also reported. The nationwide totals now stand at 77,395 infections and 1,399 fatalities.
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WHO team meets Chinese scientists in Wuhan
From CNN’s Sophie Jeong in Hong Kong
A team of World Health Organization (WHO) investigators examining the origins of the coronavirus pandemic began meeting with Chinese scientists on Friday.
The team plans to visit hospitals, laboratories and markets, WHO said earlier in a tweet.
The investigators left their hotel in Wuhan on Thursday afternoon, after completing a two-week quarantine.
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New variants could add up to 85,000 Covid-19 deaths to US toll by May, influential model forecasts
From CNN Health's Maggie Fox
New coronavirus variants are likely to worsen the spread of the virus across the United States and add to the death toll, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington forecast Thursday.
The model now forecasts 594,624 deaths by May 1 as its most likely projection – 25,000 more fatalities than in the last projection from IHME, which forecast 569,000 Americans would die from Covid-19 by May 1.
Rapid variant spread would take that number up to 620,000 by May 1, IHME said. And in a worst-case scenario, nearly 654,000 Americans could be dead by May 1, IHME says. That’s 85,000 more than IHME forecast as its most likely May 1 scenario just last Sunday.
New variants: The model includes, for the first time, the potential effects of more contagious variants of the virus that were first seen in Britain and South Africa and which have now been found in the US. The B.1.1.7 variant first seen in Britain has been found in test results from 28 states, while South Carolina on Thursday reported the first two US cases of the B.1.135 variant first seen in South Africa.
But it doesn’t take a new variant to make the forecast numbers of deaths grow, IHME director Dr. Christopher Murray said.
What can be done: Deaths would stay lower if Americans simply wore masks and stayed home more. If most people followed social distancing and masking guidelines, 30,000 fewer people would die by May 1, the IHME said.
Herd immunity is unlikely to be a factor in slowing transmission in the coming months, the IHME said. Too many people are hesitant about being vaccinated, IME said. “IHME’s forecasts predict only 38% of people in the US will be immune by May 1,” it said.
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Fauci says Biden's push to reopen schools in 100 days "may not happen"
From CNN's Andrea Diaz and Paul LeBlanc
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, cautioned Thursday that President Joe Biden’s push to reopen most schools within 100 days “may not happen” as the US continues to grapple with high Covid-19 transmission.
Biden is pushing Congress to approve another $170 billion for K-12 schools, colleges and universities to help them operate safely in person or facilitate remote learning. Congress approved $82 billion in aid for schools in December, which Biden has said he views as a “down payment.”
The new funding would be part of a broad $1.9 trillion relief package that would also include expanding unemployment benefits and direct stimulus checks.
WHO says its team in Wuhan will visit labs, markets and hospitals
From CNN’s Sandi Sidhu in Hong Kong
A team of World Health Organization (WHO) investigators examining the origins of the coronavirus pandemic will meet Chinese scientists on Friday, according to WHO.
The team will also speak with early responders and some of the first Covid-19 patients in Wuhan, it said.
“All hypotheses are on the table as the team follows the science in their work,” it said, adding “they should receive the support, access and the data they need.”
The team left their hotel in Wuhan on Thursday afternoon, after completing a two-week quarantine.
Novavax says UK Phase 3 trial shows its coronavirus vaccine has 89% efficacy
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
A Phase 3 trial of biotechnology company Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine shows it has an efficacy of 89.3%, the company announced on Thursday.
The company also highlighted the vaccine’s apparent efficacy against new variants of the virus that have alarmed both politicians and scientists.
The trial, conducted in the United Kingdom, included efficacy estimates by strain based on PCR tests performed on strains from 56 Covid-19 cases in the trial. The vaccine was found to have 95.6% efficacy against the original novel coronavirus and 85.6% against the variant first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7.
The company also announced that a Phase 2b study conducted in South Africa, where another variant was first identified, showed 60% efficacy.
“With today’s results from our UK Phase 3 and South Africa Phase 2b clinical trials, we have now reported data on our Covid-19 vaccine from Phase 1, 2 and 3 trials involving over 20,000 participants,” Stanley Erck, Novavax president and CEO, said in the announcement.
Shabir Maddi, principal investigator in the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine trial in South Africa, said the South Africa data underscored the “value of this vaccine to prevent illness from the highly worrisome variant currently circulating in South Africa, and which is spreading globally.”
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South Carolina detects first US cases of coronavirus strain first seen in South Africa
From CNN's Michael Nedelman
South Carolina officials have announced the United States’ first two confirmed cases of a more contagious coronavirus strain first spotted in South Africa.
There is no known travel history or connection between the cases, both adults, according to a release Thursday from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Both cases were originally tested in early January, according to Dr. Brannon Traxler, the health department’s interim public health director.
One case was confirmed to the department late yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the other was identified by the state’s public health laboratory while testing samples over the past several days.
A spokeswoman for the state health department told CNN that no other cases have been linked to either one at this point.
German officials say AstraZeneca vaccine shouldn't be given to over-65s, citing lack of data
From CNN's Claudia Otto, Laura Smith-Spark and Nadine Schmidt
Germany’s vaccine commission said the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine should not be given to people older than 65 years, amid a bitter dispute between the European Union and the drugmaker over delayed supplies.
The Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s main public health authority, found there is insufficient data on the effectiveness of the vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, for this age group, according to a statement from the interior ministry on Thursday.
Responding to the announcement, an AstraZeneca spokesperson said “latest analyses of clinical trial data for the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine support efficacy in the over 65 years age group.” The drugmaker is awaiting a regulatory decision by the European Union medicines regulator, the spokesperson added.
EU dispute: Thursday’s announcement by the German Interior Ministry came amid an ongoing dispute between the European Union and AstraZeneca over delays to the delivery of its coronavirus vaccine to the bloc.
AstraZeneca has said it can’t deliver as many doses as the EU expected, citing production challenges. But the European Commission, which ordered the vaccine on behalf of EU member states, says this is unacceptable, and the drugmaker must find a way to increase supply.
Vaccine shortages: The dispute comes as EU countries, including Germany, run low on vaccines, In Spain, the regional government of Madrid has paused administering first doses of the vaccine, to ensure there is enough to provide second doses for those who already got their first shots.
Concerns over expected shortages of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines means some French regions, including Paris, will push back or cancel appointments for first injections, the French Health Ministry said in a press statement on Thursday.
Only half of Covid-19 vaccines delivered to states have been used, CDC data shows. Here's one reason why
From CNN's John Bonifield
A possible explanation is emerging for why federal data shows only about half of the vaccine supply delivered in the US has been administered.
The nation’s vaccine distribution figures have baffled observers for weeks, with states claiming they need more vaccine when the data indicates they still have many doses on hand.
Health officials for President Joe Biden sought to explain on Wednesday, at least in part.
Speaking at a media briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said not all vaccine that’s been delivered to states is available for “inserting into people’s arms.”
White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients took that explanation a step further.
Walensky, when asked by CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Wednesday if it is the right approach for states to hold onto Covid-19 vaccine that is intended for second doses, declined to directly answer the question.
An administration official on Wednesday told CNN states should not be holding back second doses and that is not the Biden administration’s guidance.
The Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines currently available for emergency use in the US require two doses. A federal dashboard tracks the nation’s distribution of these vaccines. The data shows how many doses of vaccine have been delivered to each state, but it does not differentiate between first and second doses.
