Pregnant women at higher risk of COVID infection, study finds; New York City May Run Out of Vaccine Today: Live Updates

A recent study found that pregnant women in Washington state were infected with COVID-19 at a rate 70% higher than others at similar ages.

Plus, infection rates in pregnant women of color were much higher than researchers expected, according to the study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The study provides further evidence that pregnancy should be considered a high-risk health concern for the COVID-19 vaccine priority, said lead author Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, OB-GYN at the Faculty of University of Washington medicine.

© Dean Musgrove / The Orange County Register via AP
Raymundo Armagnac, who works at Denker Elementary School in Gardena near Los Angeles, receives his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday at the Roybal Learning Center.

“Our data indicates that pregnant women have not avoided the pandemic as we hoped, and communities of color bear the greatest burden,” Waldorf said.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox every morning.

– Adrianna rodriguez

USA TODAY is keeping track of COVID-19 news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Want more? Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates to your inbox and join our Facebook group.

In the headlines:

►The White House has postponed President Joe Biden’s planned trip to Michigan, delaying his visit to a Pfizer facility in Portage from Thursday to Friday, according to sources familiar with the visit. Although details of the delay were not available, the Washington area was under a winter storm warning Thursday.

►New York is suing Amazon, saying the company has failed to provide workers with a safe environment in two warehouses as COVID-19 infections have increased across the country.

►If the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine seems chaotic and incomprehensible, with numbers that don’t add up and allowances that don’t make sense, you are not alone.

📈 The numbers of the day: The United States has more than 27.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 491,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: over 110 million cases and 2.43 million deaths. More than 72.4 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed in the United States and about 56.2 million have been administered, according to the CDC.

📘 What we read: Want a carefree 4th of July? Vaccinations against COVID-19 must ramp up – and quickly. Learn more here.

Pennsylvania Running Out of Second Doses

Some medical experts have pushed for all available COVID-19 vaccines to be used immediately, rather than withholding second doses, in order to inoculate as many people as possible with the first vaccines. The current problems in Pennsylvania call this strategy into question.

The state health department has recognized that tens of thousands of immunization appointments will have to be postponed because not enough second doses of the Moderna vaccine were recorded and were instead administered as the first doses.

The health department said it would take at least 2-3 weeks to resolve the issue. Vaccine suppliers will extend the time between the first and second dose of Moderna by one to two weeks, which is still in line with the CDC’s six-week maximum timeframe.

– Brian Myszkowski, Pocono Record

Back to normal: So when is it: summer? Falls? Christmas?

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine can seem chaotic and incomprehensible, with numbers that don’t add up and allocations that don’t make sense. Jeff Zients, COVID-19 response coordinator at the White House, predicted this week that an adequate supply of vaccines for 300 million Americans will be available by the end of July. President Joe Biden and Senior Public Health Assistant Dr Anthony Fauci also spoke of a return to normalcy – at Christmas.

The distribution of vaccines by the federal government has been booming since Biden took office, increasing 57% since Jan.25. As of this week, there are up to 13.5 million doses shipped per week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 70 million doses have been distributed. To meet Zients’ forecast, however, the federal government distribution will need to increase significantly. At the current level, this would not happen until the fall.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is among the experts trying to figure out how the CDC, White House and state numbers fit together. He says he can’t. “None of us know what’s going on,” he said.

– Elizabeth Way

Storms block vaccination campaign: “ The virus does not take snow days ”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said vaccine doses expected this week were delayed by winter weather elsewhere in the country, forcing the city to delay 30,000 to 35,000 vaccination appointments. The city has less than 30,000 initial doses remaining and could run out of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, he said. The Southeastern United States, ravaged by power outages and freezing conditions, is experiencing the same problem. Some vaccination sites have canceled appointments and vaccine shipments continue to be delayed, the White House has acknowledged.

“The fact that vaccination centers take snowy days will only make things stronger than they already are,” said Dr Amesh Adalja, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “The virus does not take snow days.”

Cuomo takes more heat for deaths in retirement homes

The Justice Department has reviewed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus task force and has attempted to determine whether the state intentionally tampered with data regarding retirement home deaths, said two people close to the dossier to the Associated Press. Cuomo, once a national leader in the fight against the virus, faces calls for an investigation after his senior aide, Melissa DeRosa, told lawmakers last week that the state had “suspended” the release of some data from the COVID-19 nursing homes to state lawmakers. Cuomo and DeRosa said they delayed releasing the data because they were focused on a similar Justice Department investigation.

“No apologies,” Cuomo said this week. “We should have done a better job providing information, we should have done a better job at removing misinformation. I take responsibility for it. I am in charge.”

– Jon campbell

The pandemic severely affects the life expectancy of the black community

Life expectancy in the United States has dropped to its lowest level in 15 years, and even lower for black Americans and Latinos, during the first half of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study released Thursday. Data through June 2020 shows that life expectancy at birth for the total US population fell from 2019 by one year to 77.8 years, the lowest since 2006, according to researchers at the Center National Health Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The life expectancy of black populations has fallen the most – from 2.7 years to 72 years.

“It was disturbing to see that the progress made for the black community and the closing of the gap between the life expectancies of African Americans and (white) Americans over the past six years had come to a standstill,” he said. said Dr. Leon McDougle, president of the National Medical Association.

– Adrianna rodriguez

Pfizer vaccine weaker compared to South African variant, new report says

The neutralizing antibody response of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine decreased by two-thirds against the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa, but it is not known how this could impact the level of protection of the vaccine, according to a preliminary report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The South African variant, known as B.1.351, has only been detected in about 20 cases of COVID-19 in the United States, but has raised concerns due to the possibility that it could withstand vaccines. Pfizer and BioNTech said there was “no clinical evidence to date” that their vaccine is not effective against this variant, but are working on an update or a booster anyway.

“ It is not known what effect a reduction in neutralization of about two-thirds would have on the protection (vaccine) against COVID-19 caused by the B.1.351 line of SARS-CoV-2, ” the report said, written by researchers from Pfizer, BioNTech, and the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Researchers found no reduction in efficacy against the British variant, and some experts point out that the vaccine should still protect against serious illnesses of the South African variant.

Two Louisiana residents accused of attempting to corrupt Hawaiian airport screen

Two Louisiana residents have been arrested for attempting to bribe Hawaii airport screening officers to allow them to circumvent mandatory state rules on safe travel, officials said. Johntrell White, 29, and Nadia Bailey, 28, arrived in Hawaii on February 12 without “valid COVID-19 exemptions or pre-tests,” officials said in a press release. They told an airport attendant that they would give him $ 3,000 to let them both pass without quarantining.

“The screener alerted the deputy sheriffs, who arrested them both for bribery. White and Bailey were arrested and released and immediately returned to the mainland,” the statement said.

Current travel restrictions in Hawaii require visitors to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine unless they produce a negative test before arrival.

Mexico arrests 6 for trafficking in fake coronavirus vaccines

Mexican police arrested six people in the northern border state of Nuevo León on Wednesday for smuggling fake coronavirus vaccines. Deputy Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell later said the counterfeits were touted as Pfizer vaccines, which are only available in Mexico through government vaccination teams. He said the suspects offered the vaccines for sale for the equivalent of about $ 2,000 per dose.

“You are not playing with health, and in these times of a pandemic, no one should take advantage of it,” said Public Security Secretary Rosa Zélanda Rodríguez.

USA TODAY; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pregnant women at higher risk of COVID infection, study finds; New York City May Run Out of Vaccine Today: Live Updates