US deaths decline sharply with vaccines
COVID-19 deaths down nearly 90% among older adults, while health experts warn that immune-resistant variants pose major risk, even as overall rates improve.
The accelerated deployment of COVID-19 vaccines has saved thousands of lives, according to experts and an analysis by the Financial Times. Most remarkably, deaths among the oldest people have gone down nearly 90 percent within the first two months of the USA vaccination rollout.
Time for a new goal: “I'm proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into our administration, we will have met my goal of administering 100 million shots to our fellow Americans,” said President Biden. “Behind these 100 million shots are millions of lives changed when people receive that dose of hope: Grandparents can hug their grandchildren again. Frontline workers who can show up at their jobs without the same fear they used to have. Teachers -- with the confidence to head back into the classroom.”
The White House confirmed it is planning to “lend” 4 million doses of stockpiled AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada and Mexico. The vaccine has been manufactured in the USA in advance of clinical trial completion and FDA authorization. A phase 3 clinical trial in the USA is underway and expected to be completed in the next several weeks. The vaccine is already in use around the world, and European drug regulators today affirmed their judgment that the vaccine is safe, despite concerns over reported blood clots in a small number of recipients.
This morning’s hearing in front of the Senate Health, Education Labor & Pensions Committee put the USA’s oddly partisan approach to COVID-19 on full display, although many senators from both parties attempted to steer away from politics and focus on what has resulted from the confusion and misinformation spewed by national leaders in 2020. If you are interested in Sen. Rand Paul’s latest attempts to embarrass Dr. Tony Fauci — or Fauci’s skillful rebukes of the junior senator from Kentucky, check out coverage in other media. There were a few items of substance:
Fauci and the other federal science leaders all said that the steady emergence of COVID-19 variants explains the uncertainty about how many people need to be vaccinated in order to end the pandemic.
The protective level of “herd immunity” for a well-understood disease like measles is different from COVID-19. “Measles doesn’t vary with time,” said FDA biologics chief Peter Marks. “With COVID-19 we (are concerned) about being decimated by another variant,” adding that the long-term effects of COVID-19 are a good reason to minimize the number of people infected, even if most people survive the disease.
The CDC is reviewing new data on preventing COVID-19 in schools and will update guidelines on an ongoing basis, said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, acknowledging recent evidence suggesting that schools may be able to operate safely with consistent face-covering and less than six-feet separation between students.
Twice-weekly testing and a comprehensive mitigation strategy kept COVID-19 infections low at a New Jersey boarding school, the CDC reports.
If currently ongoing and soon-to-be-started clinical trials go well, vaccines may be available for those who are 12 years and older as soon as this Fall and for younger children around the end of the year or very early in 2022, said Marks, who is the FDA’s top vaccine expert.
Side note: At the hearing, we learned that what the Trump Administration called “Operation Warp Speed” is now referred to as simply “The Operation.”
FEMA will reimburse some funeral costs for COVID-19 victims.
Another study shows that reinfection with COVID-19 is possible and that protection from having had COVID-19 is not absolute and may not be long-lasting.
Restrictions on travel between the USA and Canada and Mexico might be lifted in May, CNBC reports.
Hamilton fans: Watch this amazing video produced by health care pros at a Sacramento area hospital, in which they revised one of the Broadway hit’s most popular songs with a COVID-19 prevention theme.
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