American coronavirus: 10 million people have been infected with coronavirus in the United States – and rates continue to rise in 43 states

“We absolutely need more testing. Cases are increasing faster than testing rates,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

But amid the horrific trends, there is good news on the vaccine front.

A vaccine can be 90% effective

On Monday, drugmaker Pfizer said early data shows its Covid-19 vaccine is over 90% effective.

More than 43,000 volunteers had received either two doses of the vaccine or a placebo.

A so-called interim analysis looked at the first 94 coronavirus infections in the group. Less than 10% of infections were in participants who had received the vaccine. More than 90% of the cases involved people who received a placebo.

This request could be made by the third week of November.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has so far said the vaccine has shown no safety concerns.

“But we have to wait until the results are there,” Bourla told CNN chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta.

It is not known exactly when the vaccine might be available to the public for most Americans. But when it does, “the vaccine will be available free to all US citizens,” Bourla said.

‘Pour gasoline on a fire’

As America waits for a vaccine, the coronavirus is raging at levels never seen before during the pandemic.

The United States has averaged 108,737 new cases of Covid-19 per day over the past week – a record, according to Johns Hopkins.

The highest number of infections ever reported in one day came on Saturday, with 128,412 new cases.

“Over the past week, about 23 states from all parts of the country have reported (new) record cases,” Walensky said.

“The death rates are high, and in fact they represent the number of cases from two to three weeks ago. So that’s when we had a number of cases between 60,000 and 70,000. So you can imagine what will happen in the coming weeks.

And 19 states reported record Covid-19 hospitalizations over the weekend, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Emergency physician Dr Megan Ranney says US ‘is heading for the worst of this pandemic’

“We’re about to see all these little epidemics across the country, crossed over and mixed up,” Ranney said.

“It’s going to be a bit like pouring gasoline on a fire,” she said.

Los Angeles Health Officer: People Who Celebrate, Protest Should Be Tested

After seeing “real and alarming increases” in Covid-19 cases, Los Angeles director of health Barbara Ferrer recommends anyone who does not regularly stay six feet from others or wear a face mask during celebrations or demonstrations, to be tested for coronavirus.

“If you go out into these big crowds and sing, shout, celebrate or protest and don’t have a mask or keep your distance, there’s a lot of transmission going on there,” Ferrer told me. “If you’ve been in these situations, you may have been exposed, so quarantine yourself and go get tested.”

Los Angeles County, which has 10 million people, added 1,413 new cases on Monday, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 323,625. There are 855 people currently hospitalized with the virus, said Ferrer.

“ We must … avoid further devastation ”

Of the 43 states where new cases climbed more than 10% last week, 10 states saw increases of more than 50%: Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont and State from Washington.

No state has lowered the rate of new infections by more than 10% last week.

Governor Gary Herbert issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency and issuing a mask warrant for all of Utah on Sunday.

He also limited social gatherings to households until November 23.

“Hospitalizations and intensive care units are approaching capacity and health care providers will be unable to care for the Utahns in the coming days if this surge continues,” the governor’s office said in a statement.

“We must act now to protect our hospitals and healthcare workers and to prevent further devastation on our families, communities and businesses.

Study: Hydroxychloroquine does not work against Covid-19

In this study, a randomized trial involved 479 Covid-19 patients hospitalized for respiratory disease. Some received hydroxychloroquine and others received a placebo.

The results found strong evidence that hydroxychloroquine is “not beneficial” for adults hospitalized with Covid-19. They found “no significant difference between the hydroxychloroquine and placebo groups”.

The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine on March 28 after strong promotion from Trump and his administration.

In a JAMA editorial, Dr Michael Saag, a researcher in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said politicization was an important factor in promoting the use of the drug.

“The clear, unambiguous and compelling lesson from the history of hydroxychloroquine to the medical community and the public is that science and politics do not mix,” Saag wrote.

“The number of articles in the peer-reviewed literature over the past few months that have consistently and convincingly demonstrated the ineffectiveness of a highly publicized ‘cure’ for COVID-19 represents the consequence of the infusion. irresponsible politics in the world of scientific evidence and discourse. For other therapies or potential interventions for COVID-19 (or any other disease), this should not happen again. “