UK's virulent COVID-19 strain found in California
Less costly AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine cleared for use in Britain next week, while US vaccine rollout lags behind targets.
The United States now has recorded nearly 20 million COVID-19 infections and 341,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins trackers.
The “more virulent” strain of the novel coronavirus has now been confirmed in Colorado and in Southern California.
Southern California has emerged as the overwhelming hot spot for COVID-19, possibly because many vulnerable people live in close quarters and hold jobs that cannot be done remotely.
The other big news today is Britain’s clearance to begin nationwide vaccinations using a COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. They are using a single dose initially so that they can get the shots into as many arms as possible very quickly. The UK National Health Service already has over 500,000 doses of the vaccine ready to be used starting Monday. Among the advantages: the much less expensive than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines already being deployed and does not require deep-cold storage.
Operation Warp Speed (OWS) scientific leader Moncef Slaoui says the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine might be ready for FDA review in April, after US-based clinical study is completed. There have been concerns about the dosing and data quality in the British study, although all indications are that the vaccine is safe and likely effective.
The OWS leaders also said today that more than 14 million vaccine doses were made available yesterday for states to request. Those orders would be delivered next week. At a briefing Wednesday, the officials acknowledged the slower-than-expected vaccine rollout. The full briefing is linked below.
A San Diego area nurse who received a COVID-19 vaccination tested positive for the disease eight days later. Doctors say this is not surprising, since immunity triggered by the vaccine builds over several days and the incubation period of the virus indicates that the nurse could have been infected before getting the shot.
The CDC published updated guidelines for visitors to nursing homes and similar facilities.
Watch your space. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Thank you.