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As US states faced a deadline to place orders for a coronavirus vaccine, California returned to lockdown and federal officials advised wearing masks indoors, new infections reached a record 227,885 Friday.
Many states are reporting record infections, hospitalizations and deaths as healthcare systems are pushed to breaking point. The number of Americans hospitalized for Covid-19 hit a record high Thursday, at 100,667.
The daily average of cases is 210,000 and deaths are on average 1,800 a day, according to Johns Hopkins University, which recorded 2,607 deaths on Friday. The United States has recorded more than 14 million cases in total.
The alarming surge is in part attributed to the fact that millions of people choose to travel and congregate during the Thanksgiving holidays.
“People were less willing to change their behavior than [on] any other day of the pandemic, ”Laura Schewel, founder of StreetLight Data, an analytics company, told The Associated Press.
As he continues to unsuccessfully challenge his final defeat in the presidential election by Joe Biden, Donald Trump faces growing criticism for a perceived lack of leadership.
Ahead of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) meeting next week that could give the green light for emergency authorization of a vaccine produced by Pfizer, states have been told of Friday’s deadline for ordering. the two-step jab.
On Saturday, Dr James Hildreth, a member of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccine Advisory Board and President and CEO of Meharry Medical College, said NBC vaccinations could start shortly. after the crucial meeting.
“We will spend Thursday going through Pfizer’s data and at the end of the day a vote will be taken,” he said. “So by the end of the day next Thursday, a decision could be made regarding the vaccine.
“If the FDA commissioner decides to give his approval… on voting day, as early as Friday next week, we could see vaccinations roll out across the country.”
The World Health Organization has warned governments and citizens not to let their guard down as a vaccination draws near, saying health systems could falter further, and recent data suggests that, while rare, reinfection is possible.
“We have seen the number of people infected continue to increase, but we are also seeing data emerging that the protection may not last a lifetime, and as a result, we could see re-infections starting to occur,” Dr Mike Ryan , executive director of the WHO health emergency program, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
Britain has approved the Pfizer vaccine, raising hopes that the tide may soon turn against a virus that has killed nearly 1.5 million people worldwide. But that too came with controversy, after leading US expert Dr Anthony Fauci advanced and then retracted the view that UK authorities had failed to properly analyze the data.
Fauci, a member of the White House task force, said on Friday healthy Americans shouldn’t expect to receive a vaccine until April, as healthcare workers, the elderly and people with illnesses chronic would be a priority.
“A healthy non-elderly person with no recognizable underlying conditions will likely start… in late March, early April. Once you get there in April, probably full in with these people. Fauci told CNN.
“The sooner you get the overwhelming majority of the country vaccinated, the sooner you will have this collective immunity umbrella that will be so important in bringing down the level of the virus.
The first vaccine shipments are expected to be split between states and federal agencies, including the Department of Defense. This first effort will fall far short of protecting high-priority groups such as healthcare workers, according to a Reuters analysis.
Writing for The Dispatch, a conservative magazine, Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins professor, said the FDA must “embrace a sense of urgency.”
“We had Operation Warp Speed in vaccine development, but Operation Turtle Speed in reviewing results,” he wrote.
Experts also warned that much is still unknown about vaccine candidates from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, including duration of immunity, possible long-term side effects, and variance between ages, races and races. ethnicities.
On Thursday, Dr William Moss, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s International Vaccine Access Center, said it would likely take another year or so to figure out what vaccines can do.
“It will be important to continue to follow up with people who receive the vaccine,” he said. “Other vaccines… could be even better.”
Not enough time has passed to determine whether the vaccines have long-term side effects or can prevent transmission, Moss said, adding, “We will only know the short-term side effects.”
Rupali Limaye, director of behavioral science and implementation at the International Vaccine Access Center, said Covid vaccines would not save lives if a majority of the public refused to take them. It is currently estimated that up to 70% of the US population must be vaccinated for herd immunity to take effect.
Health officials must therefore begin to identify potential barriers to widespread immunization, including disparities in trust between white and non-white populations, Limaye said.
“There have to be messages to resolve issues like reluctance, so that an appropriate intervention can be applied,” she said. “It must be adapted to meet different audiences and it must be credible and transparent.”
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