White House experts warn of perilous December

Trump's Coronavirus Task Force and the CDC Director issue dire warnings based on holiday travel and the steep climb in new COVID cases and hospitalizations

Here are today’s COVID-19 top stories.

• “The most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.” Those are the words that CDC Director Robert Redfield used Wednesday to describe the next three months.

• The COVID-19 situation in the USA has gotten so bad that the White House Coronavirus Task Force is telling state health officials to go around elected leaders if they have to and communicate directly with the public about the “immediate danger” in nearly every community. Older adults and anyone with underlying health conditions “should not enter any indoor public spaces where anyone is unmasked due to the immediate risk to your health; you should have groceries and medications delivered,” according to CNN’s account of the message from the White House task force.

• As expected, the CDC reduced the recommended quarantine period for those who may have had COVID-19 exposure but do not develop symptoms.

• The UK cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and expects to begin injecting it into people within the next few days. Prime Minister Johnson urges people to continue taking COVID-19 precautions.

• The U.S. government is purchasing another 650,000 doses of Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19. The government had already purchased 300,000 doses of the treatment, which has an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA. CVS will administer the injection drug directly to patients in their homes.

• Now that COVID-19 vaccines appear to be available soon, hospitals and other employers are grappling with whether to require employees to be vaccinated. Several hospital leaders tell Modern Healthcare that they are likely to avoid such a mandate if possible.

• A Hawaii couple was arrested on reckless endangerment charges after they boarded a flight from San Francisco knowing that they had both tested positive for COVID-19, according to the mayor of K’aui via KGO-TV.