What you need to know about the coronavirus on Wednesday, January 27

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Black and Latin Americans are receiving the Covid-19 vaccine at significantly lower rates than whites – a disparity health advocates attribute to the failure of the US federal government and hospitals to prioritize access fair.

A CNN analysis of data from 14 states found that immunization coverage is on average twice as high among whites than among blacks and Latinos.

The numbers are even more concerning as blacks and Latin Americans are already dying from Covid-19 at three times the rate of whites and are hospitalized at a rate four times the rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of United States.

So far, nearly 20 million people – about 6% of the U.S. population – have received at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to CDC data. Almost 3.5 million are fully vaccinated. The numbers are a far cry from what some officials hoped the United States would be now.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden announced measures to speed up vaccine allocation and distribution, including the purchase of 200 million additional doses and increased distribution to states of millions of doses starting next week.

With those extra doses, Biden said 300 million Americans – almost the entire U.S. population – could be vaccinated by late summer or early fall. Biden’s plan includes setting up federally-supported vaccination centers in high-risk neighborhoods, setting up mobile vaccination sites in medically underserved areas, delivering the vaccine at independent pharmacies and partnership with community health centers. It will also ensure that high-risk facilities such as prisons and homeless shelters have access to the vaccine.

“We are going to make sure that there are vaccination centers in the communities hardest hit by the pandemic, in black and Latin American communities as well as in rural communities,” said Biden.

YOU ASKED. WE HAVE ANSWER.

Q: I have received my vaccine now. Can I give up the face mask?

A: Please do not do it. CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen, emergency physician and visiting professor at George Washington University, explains why: “The vaccine will protect you against illness and hospitalization, but you may still be carrying the virus. and contagious to others. Thus, those who receive the vaccine should always wear masks and practice physical distancing. “

Wen said that doesn’t mean we’ll have to wear masks forever. It is estimated that around 70% of the population must be vaccinated before achieving herd immunity. This is the point where enough people are immune to the virus from spreading further.

Send your questions here. Are you a health worker fighting Covid-19? Message us on WhatsApp about the challenges you are facing: +1 347-322-0415.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT TODAY

AstraZeneca pushes back amid nasty vaccine dispute

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot has dismissed criticism from senior EU officials over delays in vaccine deliveries to the bloc. Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica yesterday, Soriot said that as EU vaccine orders came after those from some other countries, the drugmaker was unable to give the bloc a commitment closes on its delivery schedule.

The EU said AstraZeneca surprisingly announced last week that it would deliver fewer doses to the block than planned. EU officials have responded by threatening to restrict vaccine exports. Italy has warned it could take legal action. The ugly dispute over vaccine supplies challenges previous and boisterous statements of solidarity, cooperation and the need to ensure access to vaccines in developing countries.

The world is watching. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has even accused rich countries of stockpiling vaccines, while Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, has called the situation “vaccine apartheid”. And in their annual letter released today, Bill and Melinda Gates cautioned against “unequal immunity.” They wrote: “Since the start of the pandemic, we have urged rich countries to remember that Covid-19, wherever it is, is a threat everywhere. Until vaccines reach everyone, new groups of diseases will continue to appear. ”

Covid-19 has killed 100,000 people in the UK. The government is always wrong

The UK has the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 deaths in the world, proportionate to population. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly highlighted a new, more contagious variant of the virus, now infamously known to the world as the ‘British variant’ as one of the reasons.

But it is not that simple. As in the first wave, the government has been slow to respond to the increase in the number of cases and deaths with restrictions. He failed to operate an adequate system of contact tracing and isolation. And it has, once again, been slow on border controls, closing only “travel lanes” with more than 60 countries or territories in mid-January amid record daily deaths. Experts say the government has not learned from past mistakes and still lacks a coherent strategy, writes Angela Dewan.

Student suicides prompted school district to speed up return to in-person learning

As cases of Covid-19 climb across the United States, school districts face an impossible dilemma: protecting the mental health of students by returning to class or their physical health by keeping them at home. The Clark County Nevada School District, the fifth largest in the United States, is stepping up its plan to bring back students after a rise in student suicides. Meanwhile, major districts in Chicago and New Jersey put aside plans to return to the physical classroom at the last minute in the face of opposition from teachers.
New study from the US CDC says face-to-face learning is possible – but only with the right precautions. The Biden administration has said it wants schools to reopen, but believes Congress needs to make the necessary investments to safely return to in-person learning.

ON OUR RADAR

  • The world has now passed 100 million confirmed cases of coronavirus.
  • A gorilla called Winston at the San Diego Zoo received monoclonal antibody therapy after being infected with Covid-19.
  • A business executive and his wife have been charged after robbing a remote Canadian city and posing as local workers to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
  • The World Health Organization team in Wuhan will finally begin its long-delayed investigation into the coronavirus after eliminating the quarantine.
  • Some 31 London Metropolitan Police officers face fines after having their hair cut at an east London police station – in violation of Covid-19 regulations – while on duty.
  • These high school students turned their difficult experiences during the pandemic into powerful memories.
  • A Taiwanese man has been fined New Taiwanese $ 1 million ($ 35,000) for repeatedly breaking his home quarantine.

TOP TIP

As public demand increases for limited supplies of Covid-19 vaccines, questions remain as to whether older people with various illnesses should be vaccinated. Among them are cancer patients receiving active treatment, patients with dementia at the end of their life, and people with autoimmune diseases. Here are some tips on how older people with chronic illnesses can assess whether they should take the Covid-19 vaccine.

PODCAST OF THE DAY

“The real bottleneck of this system is having enough nurses and trained staff on site to administer the vaccines to as many people as possible on any given day.” – Ted Ross, PhD, director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology at the University of Georgia

The deployment of vaccines has proven to be an unprecedented logistical challenge. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta examines some of the different vaccine delivery strategies used in West Virginia and Georgia, and why one state is doing so much better than another. Listen now.

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