Month: August 2021

Categories
Health

Are Delta Signs Completely different? – The New York Occasions

Are Delta Symptoms Different? - The New York Times

Two years ago a sneeze or cough would not have been a cause for concern, but now even the mildest symptoms can make us wonder, “Do I have Covid?”

At the beginning of the pandemic, we learned about the typical signs of infection, which can include loss of taste and smell, fever, cough, shortness of breath, and fatigue. But what about now, more than a year later? Have the symptoms changed since the Delta variant is currently the most common form of the virus in the US?

There is little data on this question and much remains to be unraveled.

Unvaccinated patients make up the vast majority of patients hospitalized with Covid-19, so they are more likely to develop severe symptoms such as difficulty breathing or persistent chest pain or pressure. In areas with lower vaccination rates, such as Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, unvaccinated children and young adults are hospitalized in higher numbers than at other times during the pandemic. Researchers don’t yet know for sure whether Delta is solely responsible for these severe symptoms or whether it is the rise in childhood infections that may lead to more hospitalizations.

The Delta variant is almost twice as contagious as previous variants and just as contagious as chickenpox. It replicates quickly in the body, and people carry large amounts of the virus in their noses and throats.

Dr. Andrew T. Chan, an epidemiologist and physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead investigator on the Covid Symptom Study, has tracked millions of people from the UK, United States and Sweden through an app that prompts participants to report their symptoms. A preprint of data from the study that has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal suggests that those who are vaccinated are well protected against Delta. Breakthrough infections, while rare, tend to produce milder symptoms that are shorter in duration.

Understand the delta variant

At this point, nearly 90 percent of the UK adult population had received at least one dose of the vaccine. In the United States, 71 percent of adults are partially vaccinated.

In vaccinated adults, “the symptoms we are seeing now are much more likely to be identified with a cold,” said Dr. Chan. “We still see people presenting with a cough, but we’re also seeing a higher prevalence of things like runny nose and sneezing.” Headaches and sore throats are other top complaints, he added. Fever and loss of taste and smell are reported to a lesser extent.

Updated

Aug. 12, 2021, 11:24 p.m. ET

Dr. Chan said that at the time the Delta variant became widespread in the UK, researchers began seeing milder symptoms from late spring, which also coincided with the country’s mass vaccination program.

Pediatricians in New York City, where 67 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, say they see many of the same symptoms in children that they have seen since the pandemic began, and that the more severe cases usually occur in unvaccinated adolescents. especially those with underlying conditions like diabetes or obesity. Some toddlers or school-age children can also get very sick with Covid, but doctors don’t always know why one child gets much sicker than another, said Dr. Sallie Permar, Pediatrician-in-Chief at New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine.

Fever, cough, fatigue, headache and sore throat are the “classic presentation of Covid” in symptomatic children, she added.

If your child has potential Covid symptoms, including gastrointestinal issues, get both you and your child to take a Covid test and then stay home until the results are negative, said Dr. Adam Ratner, director of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone.

“That’s part of how we keep schools safe,” he added.

Tests are important for adults too, the experts said. Even if you have been vaccinated and your symptoms are mild, it is best to get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe that people who have been vaccinated can still pass the virus on to others.

“It is time to be humble that this is a new twist. We’re still learning, “said Dr. Mark Mulligan, the director of the NYU Langone Vaccine Center and the director of the Infectious Diseases Department at NYU Langone Health. “Be careful and play it safe when taking a test.”

Categories
Health

‘We’re stretched to breaking level,’ says Mississippi pulmonologist

‘We are stretched to breaking point,’ says Mississippi pulmonologist

The pulmonologist Dr. Ijlal Babar warned of the poor state of health systems and providers in Mississippi.

“I want the country to know we are tense to the breaking point, that we need help,” said Babar, director of intensive care at Singing River Health in Mississippi.

“We’re busy right now, our beds in the intensive care unit are full, we have a significant number of patients to be admitted to the emergency room.”

In Mississippi, several schools have already been forced to move to distance learning as Covid cases and hospitalizations rise across the state. Average daily cases have increased 45% over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins, while hospital admissions increased 40% over the same period, according to the Department of Health. State officials asked the Biden government to send a military hospital ship to relieve the overburdened health system.

Babar told The News with Shepard Smith that he is seeing more younger patients compared to the surge in cases over the past year.

“The average age is under 50 and their lungs are just as sick or sicker as they were on the previous climbs,” said Babar. “So last year we saw people’s kidneys and livers collapse, and we don’t see that this time, but the lungs are terrible.”

35.4% of Mississippi’s people are fully vaccinated, the second lowest rate in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Babar said he advises patients to get vaccinated but has received a rebound.

“I was told by a patient, a very young patient, that she would rather die than get the vaccine, so let’s see that.”

Babar added that of the few patients with Covid he has seen who have been vaccinated, “no one has been put on a ventilator and almost everyone is discharged.”

Categories
World News

Samsung shares fall as inheritor Lee is launched from jail

Samsung stocks fall as heir Lee is released from prison

SINGAPORE — South Korean stocks led losses among the Asia-Pacific markets in Friday morning trade, with shares of firms related to conglomerate Samsung falling after the firm’s heir was released from prison.

In Friday morning trade, shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics plunged 3.25% while Samsung C&T dropped 1.48%. Samsung Life Insurance fell nearly 1% and Samsung SDS declined 1.4%.

Those losses came after Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee was released from prison on Friday. South Korea’s justice ministry announced earlier this week that he had qualified for parole.

The broader Kospi in South Korea was down by 1.61%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.17% while the Topix index traded 0.1% higher.

Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.49% higher as investors watched the coronavirus situation, with the country’s capital Canberra entering a week-long lockdown from Thursday after a Covid-19 case was identified.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.43% lower.

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Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 14.88 points to 35,499.85 while the S&P 500 gained about 0.3% to 4,460.83. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.35% to 14,816.26.

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.995 — above levels below 92.9 seen earlier in the week.

The Japanese yen traded at 110.39 per dollar, weaker than levels below 110.20 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7334, off levels above $0.736 seen earlier in the trading week.

Oil prices were lower in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures slipping 0.53% to $70.94 per barrel. U.S. crude futures shed 0.56% to $68.7 per barrel.

Categories
Politics

Census Reveals a Nation That Resembles Its Future Extra Than Its Previous

Census Shows a Nation That Resembles Its Future More Than Its Past

At first blush, Thursday’s release of census data held great news for Democrats. It painted a portrait of a considerably more urban and metropolitan nation, with increasingly Democratic metropolitan areas bustling with new arrivals and the rural, Republican heartland steadily losing residents.

It is a much less white nation, too, with the white non-Hispanic population for the first time dropping in absolute numbers, a plunge that exceeded most experts’ estimates, and the growth in the Latino population slightly exceeding forecasts.

But the census paints a picture of America as it is. And as it is, America is not very Democratic.

Besides the census, the other great source of data on American politics is the result of the 2020 election, which revealed a deeply and narrowly divided nation. Despite nearly the full decade of demographic shifts shown by the census, Joe Biden won the national vote by the same four-point margin that he won by as Barack Obama’s running mate eight years earlier — and with fewer votes in the Electoral College.

Democrats face great challenges in translating favorable demographic trends into electoral success, and the new census data may prove to be only the latest example. While the census shows that Democratic-leaning groups represent a growing share of the population, much of the population growth occurred in the Sun Belt, where Republicans still control the redistricting process. That gives them yet another chance to preserve their political power in the face of unfavorable demographic trends. And they are well prepared to do so.

The new data will be used by state legislatures and commissions to redraw electoral maps, with the potential to determine control of Congress and state legislatures across the country in next year’s midterm election.

Thursday’s release, the most detailed yet from the 2020 census, depicted a nation that increasingly seems to resemble its future more than its past. The non-Hispanic white share of the population fell to 57.8 percentage points, nearly two points lower than expected, as more Americans identified as multiracial. Vast swaths of the rural United States, including an outright majority of its counties, saw their populations shrink.

“Democrats have reason to be happy with this census data set,” said Dave Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report, who cited the higher-than-expected population tallies in New York and Chicago and the steady growth of the nation’s Hispanic population.

Many Democrats had feared that Latino and urban voters would be badly undercounted amid the coronavirus pandemic and the Trump administration’s effort to ask about citizenship status.

It is still possible that the census undercounted Hispanics, but the results did not leave any obvious evidence that the count had gone awry. The Hispanic share of the population was in line with projections. New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic, showed unexpectedly strong population growth.

The surprising decline in the white and rural population is likely to bolster Democratic hopes that demographic shifts might help progressives secure a significant electoral advantage.

But the possibility that demographic changes would doom conservatives has loomed over American politics for more than a decade, helping to exacerbate conservative fears of immigration and even to motivate a wave of new laws intended to restrict access to voting. Tucker Carlson, the Fox News television show host, has repeatedly stoked racist fears of “white replacement,” warning his viewers that it is a Democratic electoral strategy.

Yet despite the seemingly favorable demographic portrait for Democrats depicted by the 2020 census, the 2020 election returned another closely divided result: a 50-50 Senate, one of the closest presidential elections in history, and a House majority so slender that it might be undone by the very data that Democrats were celebrating on Thursday.

The nation’s electoral system — which rewards flipping states and districts — has tended to mute the effect of demographic change. Many Democratic gains in vote margins have come in metropolitan areas, where Democratic candidates were already winning races, or in red states like Texas, where Democrats have made huge gains in presidential elections but haven’t yet won many additional electoral votes.

But Democrats haven’t fared much better over the past decade, as one would have expected based on favorable demographic trends alone. It’s not clear they’ve improved at all. Barack Obama and Joe Biden each won the national popular vote by four percentage points in 2012 and 2020. Demographic shifts, thus far, have been canceled out by Republican gains among nonwhite and especially Latino voters, who supported Mr. Trump in unexpectedly large numbers in 2020 and helped deny Democrats victory in Florida.

The new census data confirms that the nation’s political center of gravity continues to shift to the Republican Sun Belt, where demographic shifts have helped Democrats make huge inroads over the past decade. Georgia and Arizona turned blue in 2020. Texas, where Hispanic residents now roughly equal non-Hispanic whites, is on the cusp of becoming a true battleground state.

Just 50.1 percent of Georgians were non-Hispanic whites, according to the new census data, raising the possibility that whites already represent a minority of the state’s population by now.

But despite Democratic gains in the Sun Belt, Republicans continue to control the redistricting process in most of the fast-growing states that picked up seats through reapportionment.

The relatively robust number of Latino and metropolitan voters will make it more difficult for Republicans to redraw some maps to their advantage, by requiring them to draw more voters from rural Republican areas to dilute urban and metropolitan concentrations of Democratic-leaning voters. It may also help Democrats redraw maps to their favor in Illinois and New York, where they do control the redistricting process.

But there are few limits on gerrymandering, and even today’s relatively favorable data for Democrats are unlikely to be enough to overcome the expected Republican advantages in states where they enjoy full control over the redistricting process.

The Democrats may be relying on the Republicans’ growing bashful about gerrymandering, said Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida.

“What the Republicans will have to do is crack the urban areas, and do it pretty aggressively,” he said. “It’s just one of those things we’ll have to see — how aggressive Republicans can be.”

Nick Corasaniti contributed reporting.

Categories
Entertainment

How Jennifer Hudson Ready to Play Aretha Franklin

How Jennifer Hudson Prepared to Play Aretha Franklin

Jennifer Hudson had plenty of time to think about how to portray Aretha Franklin on screen. In 2007, shortly after Hudson won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – for the role of girl group singer in “Dreamgirls” – Franklin told Hudson to play her in a biopic and began a decades-long friendship of weekly conversations.

Like Franklin, Hudson grew up singing in church and poured gospel virtuosity into pop songs. And like Franklin, whose mother died of a heart attack at the age of 34, Hudson suffered a sudden, devastating loss: her mother, brother, and nephew were murdered in Chicago in 2008. In her career, Hudson has repeatedly paid tribute to Franklin, using a Franklin song for her “American Idol” audition in 2004 to singing “Amazing Grace” at Franklin’s funeral in 2018. Now Hudson plays Franklin in the biopic “Respect “Which hits theaters this week.

“Every artist, every musician has to meet Aretha, especially if you want to be great,” said Hudson in a video interview from Chicago, where she lives; her gray cat Macavity was sneaking around in the background. “She was always present in my life in some form, even if I didn’t know it.”

When Hudson explained the choices that went into her performance, she said that through the film, she understood how much Franklin was a “blueprint”. “Our church music was based entirely on her. The ‘Amazing Grace’ I sang in church is from their ‘Amazing Grace’ album. I only noticed that while researching the film. “

Hudson, 39, is both the star and executive producer of Respect. The film traces Franklin’s life from her childhood – as a singing miracle singing in church alongside her father, the eminent Reverend Clarence L. Franklin – through her pregnancy at 12, her frustrating years singing jazz standards at Columbia Records to her triumphant rise as Queen of Soul at Atlantic Records, and the pressure and drinking that threatened everything she had accomplished. The story ends in 1972 with Franklin reclaiming her ecclesiastical heritage to record her groundbreaking live gospel album, Amazing Grace.

“Respect” is the first film by Liesl Tommy, who was born during apartheid in South Africa and has worked extensively in the theater directing newly conceived classics and politically charged new plays such as “Eclipsed” about women during the civil war in Liberia. (She was nominated Tony for Best Director for this production.) To write the script for Respect, Tommy brought in playwright Tracey Scott Wilson, whose grandfather was a preacher.

“When I came up with my idea for the film,” Tommy said on the phone from Los Angeles, “it should start in church and end in church. The subject of the film was the woman with the greatest voice in the world struggling to find her voice. I wanted to know how a person sings with such emotional intensity.

“Lots of people have brilliant voices,” she continued, “but she’s the only one who delivers songs the way she does. I don’t think you will become the queen of the soul if it is easy for you. There was a lived experience that made it possible for her to sing like that. “

Franklin was celebrated again after her death in 2018. The long-postponed concert film that was made when the album “Amazing Grace” was recorded was finally released this year. And National Geographic dedicated an entire season to Franklin’s TV series “Genius” with Cynthia Erivo in the title role. “Aretha Franklin lived a life that could fit many, many versions of many stories about her,” said Tommy. “She deserves it.”

“Respect” contrasts the personal and political currents of Franklin’s career: Forging a feminist hymn with “Respect” while dealing with an abusive husband, regularly with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. appears and controversial personalities like the Black Power activist supports Angela Davis. In one of the roughest scenes, Franklin sings at King’s funeral. “Imagine you were Aretha Franklin in this era and Dr. King, who she was so close to, is being murdered, ”said Hudson. “Imagine the suffering and pain she went through. But in her position she still had to be that person to be the light in such a dark time. This is difficult.”

Still, Hudson and Tommy were determined to put Franklin’s music at the center of the film. “Everyone says, ‘We’ve never seen a biopic with so much music that you can hear the songs in,'” said Hudson. “This is not a musical. It’s a biopic about artists, musicians. But I can’t think of a biopic or musical that was made that way. “

As executive producer, Hudson said, “I wanted to make sure the right songs were in the movie. I wanted ‘Ain’t No Way’. When I’m just an actor I can’t really have my say, but it’s like, ‘I’m sorry, but we can’t do this unless’ Ain’t No Way ‘is part of it.’ “

In an extensive recording studio sequence, Aretha’s sisters Carolyn and Erma Franklin all sing the backup vocals – not Cissy Houston, whose wordless soprano counterpoint transfigures the song. “That’s part of the artistic license,” said Tommy. “You can only have so many characters. You have to stay focused. “

To create immediacy, Hudson delivered Franklin’s appearances on stage by singing live in front of the camera – not lip-synchronizing, not synchronizing into the vocals afterwards. “I wanted to experience it the way she did in her life,” said Hudson. “Whatever we’ve been re-enacting and re-enacting in their lives, if it was live, it’s like, ‘Well, let’s do it live.’ ‘Amazing Grace’ was live. ‘Ain’t No Way’ was live. We will sing ‘Natural Woman’ live. So it could be authentic for what was really in her life. “

Franklin was an accomplished gospel pianist and singer, her skills forged in church as a child. She supported her early, commercially unsuccessful albums for Columbia with acclaimed jazz musicians and lavish orchestral arrangements. It was elegant, but old-fashioned by the 1960s.

Her return to the piano was a catalyst for her indelible Atlantic hits, which defined the groove with ecclesiastical foundations and built a visceral call and response between her fingers and her voice. Hudson began learning the piano after a career in which he worked exclusively as a singer. “It was an actor’s choice to say, ‘I can’t play Aretha Franklin without learning some piano,'” said Hudson. “And now, when I’m learning music, I don’t just look at the top line, the melody line, the vocal line. I’m considering it as an arranger. What key is that in? How is the progress?”

Hudson also considered how to reinterpret Franklin’s songs. Their voices are different: Hudson’s is higher and clearer, Franklin’s bluesier and rougher, and Hudson wanted to emulate Franklin without copying her. “I used her approach and just allowed everything she did on me as I used her inflections and different nuances,” said Hudson. “It was more about feeling than it was about matching the grades.”

Despite their years of conversations, Hudson Franklin still had to research. “Aretha wasn’t a person who talked too much except through music,” she said. “I know from my experiences around them that I used to be like that, I can’t really tell where I am. She didn’t give you much. ”So Hudson set out to understand the era she was raised in and other circumstances to get a feel for what it was like to be a woman back then. “I literally noticed in the middle of the scenes that the things she was telling me speak from experience. Her greatest expression was through her music – and that was real. “

Categories
Health

As Virus Circumstances Surge, Biden Administration Encourages Extra Use of Antibody Remedies

As Virus Cases Surge, Biden Administration Encourages More Use of Antibody Treatments

WASHINGTON – Amid crowded hospitals and a relentless increase in Delta variant cases across the country, the Biden government on Thursday renewed its call on health care providers to use monoclonal antibody treatments that can help Covid-19 patients at risk of becoming very sick become.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a White House Racial Health Advisor, said at a press conference that federal surge teams deployed to severely affected states were working to increase acceptance and confidence in the antibody drugs. They have already been given to more than 600,000 people in the United States during the pandemic, she said to prevent hospitalizations and save lives. President Donald J. Trump received such treatment when he was diagnosed with Covid-19 last year before being approved for emergency use.

In states where vaccination has stalled and cases have soared, treatments have become an important part of the federal strategy to reduce the number of the worst outbreaks, underscoring how many Americans remain at risk.

The distribution of doses ordered from medical providers increased fivefold from June to July. According to the Ministry of Health, around 75 percent of the orders come from regions of the country with low vaccination rates.

The government “remains ready to support states and territories and jurisdictions across the country to bring more people into contact with the treatments,” said Dr. Nunez-Smith on Thursday, despite stressing that vaccinations are still the best option for preventing Covid-19.

Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said the Biden government has dispatched more than 500 federal workers to assist state health officials and hospitals in fighting the Delta variant, including rescue workers in Louisiana and Mississippi and Centers for Disease Control and prevention teams in Tennessee, Illinois and Missouri.

Dr. Nunez-Smith said the government was providing virtual drug delivery training to doctors and health care officials in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. In Arizona, federal teams are offering the treatments at two locations, where none of the Covid-19 patients who received them were subsequently hospitalized.

The treatments, which the federal government pays for and makes available to patients free of charge, mimic antibodies that the immune system naturally produces to fight the coronavirus. When given to patients soon after symptoms appear, typically by intravenous infusion, they have been shown to greatly reduce hospital stays and deaths. There is also evidence that it may have the potential to completely prevent the disease in certain people exposed to the virus. Unlike coronavirus vaccines, which take up to six weeks to provide full protection, the antibody treatments can be given to patients who are already ill with immediate effect.

The latest data from the Ministry of Health shows that almost half of the distributed range of treatments had been used by more than 6,000 hospitals and other provider locations by the end of last year. The federal government relies on providers and state health authorities to report their usage numbers and does not track the demographics of the patients receiving the medication.

Dr. Nunez-Smith said shipments to Florida, which is experiencing a devastating surge in virus cases, increased eight-fold in the last month, and more than 108,000 treatment courses were shipped across the country in July.

Updated

Aug. 12, 2021, 5:51 p.m. ET

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday unveiled a “rapid response unit” for conducting Regeneron treatment in Jacksonville and said the state would establish similar locations in other cities.

Interest in the monoclonal antibodies was low throughout the pandemic. When they were approved last year, Regeneron and Eli Lilly’s treatments were expected to be in high demand and act as a bridge in fighting the pandemic before the vaccinations ramp up. They were tirelessly promoted by Mr. Trump, who called Regeneron treatment a “cure,” and by senior health officials in his administration.

Even so, they ended up on refrigerator shelves in many places, even during the recent power surges. Many hospitals and clinics did not prioritize treatments because they were time consuming and difficult to administer when they needed to be administered via an intravenous infusion. Doctors can now give the most commonly used Regeneron treatment, subcutaneously or by injection.

Understand the state of vaccination and masking requirements in the United States

    • Mask rules. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public places indoors in areas with outbreaks, a reversal of the guidelines offered in May. See where the CDC guidelines would apply and where states have implemented their own mask guidelines. The battle over masks is controversial in some states, with some local leaders defying state bans.
    • Vaccination regulations. . . and B.Factories. Private companies are increasingly demanding coronavirus vaccines for employees with different approaches. Such mandates are legally permissible and have been confirmed in legal challenges.
    • College and Universities. More than 400 colleges and universities require a vaccination against Covid-19. Almost all of them are in states that voted for President Biden.
    • schools. On August 11, California announced that teachers and staff at both public and private schools would have to get vaccinated or have regular tests, the first state in the nation to do so. A survey published in August found that many American parents of school-age children are opposed to mandatory vaccines for students but are more supportive of masking requirements for students, teachers, and staff who do not have a vaccination.
    • Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and large health systems require their employees to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, due to rising case numbers due to the Delta variant and persistently low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their workforce.
    • new York. On August 3, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that workers and customers would be required to provide proof of vaccination when dining indoors, gyms, performances, and other indoor situations. City hospital staff must also be vaccinated or have weekly tests. Similar rules apply to employees in New York State.
    • At the federal level. The Pentagon announced that it would make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory for the country’s 1.3 million active soldiers “by mid-September at the latest. President Biden announced that all civil federal employees would need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo regular tests, social distancing, mask requirements and travel restrictions.

“These are important tools,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who worked with Regeneron on a study that showed that the company’s antibody treatment could potentially prevent Covid-19 if given to people living with someone infected with the coronavirus . “They have shown significant therapeutic effects.”

Dr. Rajesh Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital who reviewed the study, said the evidence of the benefits of antibody treatments has only grown stronger in recent months. He said more needs to be done to educate doctors and patients about how effective they can be.

“Patients need to know that they have to call their doctors and ask about treatments,” he said. “In 2020, people with mild covid were told to stay home. That message needs to become a more proactive one. “

Regeneron has aired a number of television commercials for his treatment this year.

Virtually all Covid-19 patients who receive monoclonal antibodies during the delta surge will receive the type made by Regeneron, one of three approved by the Food and Drug Administration during the pandemic. The company estimated last week that its treatment is now reaching more than a quarter of eligible patients, up from less than 5 percent at the start of the pandemic.

The FDA last month expanded its emergency approval for Regeneron treatment so that it can be used to attempt to prevent Covid-19 in a small number of high-risk patients. This includes people with certain health conditions who are not vaccinated or who may not develop an adequate immune response, who have been exposed to the virus, or who live in nursing homes or prisons. It, like the other monoclonal antibody treatments, had previously only been available to high-risk patients who had already tested positive for the virus.

The federal government indefinitely suspended delivery of Eli Lilly’s first approved monoclonal antibody treatment in June, as new laboratory data suggested it wouldn’t work well in cases caused by the beta and gamma variants.

The government has not ordered any doses of a third treatment of GlaxoSmithKline and Vir that has been minimally used to date. Kathleen Quinn, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, said the treatment is available at health facilities in 26 states and US territories.

Categories
Health

Breed requires full Covid vaccination for indoor actions

Breed requires full Covid vaccination for indoor activities

Anjali Sundararaman, a student nurse at San Francisco State University, administers a dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Cuixia Xu during a vaccination clinic at the Southeast Health Center in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco, California on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021.

Stephen Lam | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

San Francisco on Thursday became the first major U.S. city to requiring patrons and employees to provide proof of full vaccination to enter restaurants, gyms, bars and entertainment venues.

The order from Mayor London Breed takes effect Aug. 20 for customers and Oct.13 for staff, prohibiting residents from submitting negative Covid-19 test results as a substitute to vaccination. Breed’s directive also applies to select health-care personnel, including pharmacists, dentists and home health aides.

“Vaccines are our way out of the pandemic, and our way back to a life where we can be together safely,” Breed said in a statement.

Under the order, anyone older than 12 must submit proof of vaccination to visit any indoor event with more than 1,000 guests. California previously only required attendees to get vaccinated for events with over 5,000 people, Breed’s statement said.

Breed noted the order entirely excludes individuals under the age of 12, who remain ineligible for all current Covid vaccines. Customers picking up food instead of dining inside are not required to get vaccinated either.

San Francisco County recorded a seven-day total of 1,708 new coronavirus cases as of Tuesday, a decrease of less than 3% from the prior week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But California reported a seven-day average of more than 12,000 new cases as of Wednesday, an increase of 24% from a week ago, Johns Hopkins University measured.

San Francisco joins New York City as one of the country’s largest municipalities with vaccine mandates for select indoor activities. New York City will start enforcing its mandate Sept. 13, when customers and staff must provide proof of having received at least one vaccine dose to exercise, eat at restaurants and access entertainment options inside.

San Francisco previously collaborated with six other Northern California counties in mandating facial coverings for indoor public places on Aug. 2, upgrading a mask recommendation they first issued in July.

Several Bay Area-based companies have ordered all or part of their staff to immunize against the coronavirus as well, including Google, Facebook and Gap. At least a dozen other major employers nationwide have enacted similar guidance as the delta variant continues to surge.

Categories
Politics

Kathy Hochul to host first fundraiser subsequent week after saying NY governor run

Kathy Hochul to host first fundraiser next week after announcing NY governor run

New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a press conference the day after Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation on August 11, 2021 at the New York State Capitol in Albany, New York.

Cindy Schultz | Reuters

The New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to host a personal fundraiser in her hometown of Buffalo next week as she prepares to run for governor in 2022, according to people familiar with the matter.

Hochul will lead the event on Wednesday, days before it takes over Andrew Cuomo, who on Tuesday announced his resignation over countless sexual harassment allegations that got him in hot water with state lawmakers and prosecutors. He said his resignation would take effect in two weeks.

Top tickets are expected to cost between $ 2,500 and $ 5,000, these people said. There will likely be a separate base donation event that day as well, one of the people said.

The Hochul fundraising campaign will also celebrate its birthday, said these people. Hochul holds a fundraiser for her birthday every year, added one of the people.

These people declined to be named in order to speak freely about an event that does not appear to be on Hochul’s public calendar.

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This event has higher stakes than previous fundraisers. It could help set the tone for Hochul’s 2022 governorship campaign, in which she could face stiff competition from several prominent Democrats.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and State Senator Alessandra Biaggi have not ruled out running for the governor’s villa. Attorney General Letitia James, whose report on Cuomo allegations of sexual harassment led to the governor’s resignation, is believed to be a potential lead candidate for the job.

Hochul becomes the state’s first female governor.

One of the people said that the fundraiser was originally supposed to take place on Hochul’s property in Buffalo next week, but that it had to be relocated due to increased interest in it. The fundraiser could also be postponed to another date after it settles into the governor’s job.

Although the event was launched before Cuomo’s resignation and the appointment of Hochul as the state’s next head of government, the money raised at the event will end up in their gubernatorial campaign account. State records show that Hochul’s campaign to re-elect the lieutenant governor raised just over $ 525,000 in the first half of the year and has just over $ 1.7 million to spend.

Hochul told NBC’s “TODAY” that she is moving forward with her candidacy for governor next year.

“I fully expect that. I have prepared myself for it,” said Hochul when asked if she would run.

Those expected to join the fundraiser next week are many of Hochul’s most loyal supporters, these people said.

“These are people who have been with her since the city council. They have long been her supporters and friends,” one person with direct knowledge of the congregation told CNBC.

Hochul received calls from donors shortly after James released the report that Cuomo had sexually molested 11 women. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing. Some of the donors who spoke to Hochul at the time to encourage her to run for governor had previously supported Cuomo.

Many of Cuomo’s other top financiers are starting to privately acknowledge that they will support Hochul in 2022, said a person familiar with the talks.

A Hochul spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Categories
World News

Largest Instructor’s Union Throws Help Behind Vaccination or Testing

Largest Teacher's Union Throws Support Behind Vaccination or Testing

The nation’s largest teachers’ union on Thursday offered its support to policies that would require all teachers to get vaccinated against Covid or submit to regular testing.

It is the latest in a rapid series of shifts that could make widespread vaccine requirements for teachers more likely as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads in the United States.

“It is clear that the vaccination of those eligible is one of the most effective ways to keep schools safe,” Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement.

The announcement comes after Randi Weingarten, the powerful leader of the American Federation of Teachers, another major education union, signaled her strongest support yet for vaccine mandates on Sunday.

Ms. Pringle left open the possibility that teachers who are not vaccinated could receive regular testing instead, and added that local “employee input, including collective bargaining where applicable, is critical.”

Her union’s support for certain requirements is notable because it represents about three million members across the country, including in many rural and suburban districts where adults are less likely to be vaccinated. Overall, the union said, nearly 90 percent of its members report being fully vaccinated.

Still, any decision to require vaccination for teachers is likely to come at the local or state level. And even with their growing support, teachers’ unions have maintained that their local chapters should negotiate details.

“We believe that such vaccine requirements and accommodations are an appropriate, responsible, and necessary step,” Ms. Pringle said on Thursday. She added that “educators must have a voice in how vaccine requirements are implemented.”

California has ordered all teachers and staff members to provide proof of vaccination or face weekly testing, an order that applies to both public and private schools. Hawaii is requiring all state and county employees to be vaccinated or be tested, including public-school teachers. And Denver has said that city employees, including public school teachers, must be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30.

Categories
Health

Why Not Simply Inform Everybody to Put on Masks?

Why Not Just Tell Everyone to Wear Masks?

An internal presentation circulated at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month and eventually obtained by news organizations offered clear advice on how to control the contagious Delta variant: “With greater portability and updated vaccine coverage, universal masking is essential . “

Much more nuanced, however, was the agency’s recommendation, which advised vaccinated or unvaccinated Americans to wear masks in indoor public spaces in areas with “significant” or “high” virus transmission.

Back then, that was at least 80 percent of Americans. As infection rates are skyrocketing, some experts are now asking themselves: Would it have made more sense to just ask everyone to mask?

“With rates rising across the country, the clearer message would be, ‘Wear a mask in public indoor spaces anywhere in the country,'” said David Michaels, professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the Milken Institute of Public Health at George-Washington -University.

In addition to Americans in Covid-19 hotspots, CDC officials also recommended universal indoor masking for teachers, staff, students, and school visitors, regardless of where they are and regardless of individual vaccination status.

And the agency suggested that if they or someone in their household were immunocompromised or at increased risk of a serious illness – or unvaccinated, a category that all children under – could “choose to be masked regardless of the level of transmission” 12 years of age who do so do not qualify for vaccination.

Also on the list: people who are overweight, smoke or have a disability and anyone who has been in close contact with someone with confirmed or suspected Covid-19. That’s a lot of Americans.

“The messages from the CDC were not optimal,” said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, vice president of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. “We have to be clear and relatively simple.”

Masking advice from federal health officials has changed during the pandemic. In February 2020, Americans were told not to buy masks that were in short supply. In April 2020, officials recommended that masks be worn outside the home. In May of this year, the CDC announced that vaccinated people would no longer have to wear masks.

Agency officials did not respond to requests for comment on the latest revised recommendations. But the director of the agency, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she was forced by early data suggesting the delta variant changed the equation and that vaccinated people could spread the virus on the rare occasions they were affected.

Significant evidence emerged from an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the weekend of July 4th. Almost a thousand people were infected, most of them fully vaccinated.

But many Americans have no idea week after week whether they live in a community with significant or high transmission of the virus.

The definitions are not easy to understand: Significant or high transmission means any community that has had at least 50 new infections per 100,000 population in the past seven days, or at least 8 percent of tests positive for an infection during that period. (The agency keeps a card.)

Updated

Aug. 12, 2021, 1:44 p.m. ET

A simpler mask recommendation probably wouldn’t have paved the way for mandates in a state like Texas, where two state judges this week allowed officials in Dallas County and Bexar Counties, which include San Antonio, to impose mask requirements on them from the governor despite an executive ban Greg Abbott.

Mandates are gaining traction in many communities, and the nuances of transfer rates and framework conditions have already been left aside. The reason is easy to see: the virus has been spreading rapidly in 90 percent of the country since Tuesday. And the masking takes effect quickly.

Masks “are actually amazing because they work instantly – they’re starting to reduce transmission today,” said Julia Raifman, assistant professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health. “Every case they prevent prevents several other cases, so their effectiveness grows over time.”

Understand the state of vaccination and masking requirements in the United States

    • Mask rules. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public places indoors in areas with outbreaks, a reversal of the guidelines offered in May. See where the CDC guidelines would apply and where states have implemented their own mask guidelines. The battle over masks is controversial in some states, with some local leaders defying state bans.
    • Vaccination regulations. . . and B.Factories. Private companies are increasingly demanding coronavirus vaccines for employees with different approaches. Such mandates are legally permissible and have been confirmed in legal challenges.
    • College and Universities. More than 400 colleges and universities require a vaccination against Covid-19. Almost all of them are in states that voted for President Biden.
    • schools. On August 11, California announced that teachers and staff at both public and private schools would have to get vaccinated or have regular tests, the first state in the nation to do so. A survey published in August found that many American parents of school-age children are opposed to mandatory vaccines for students but are more supportive of masking requirements for students, teachers, and staff who do not have a vaccination.
    • Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and large health systems require their employees to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, due to rising case numbers due to the Delta variant and persistently low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their workforce.
    • new York. On August 3, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that workers and customers would be required to provide proof of vaccination when dining indoors, gyms, performances, and other indoor situations. City hospital staff must also be vaccinated or have weekly tests. Similar rules apply to employees in New York State.
    • At the federal level. The Pentagon announced that it would make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory for the country’s 1.3 million active soldiers “by mid-September at the latest. President Biden announced that all civil federal employees would need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo regular tests, social distancing, mask requirements and travel restrictions.

Wearing a mask also helps protect children who cannot yet be vaccinated and others who are vulnerable, such as the elderly and people with weakened immune systems who may not be able to build a strong immune response after vaccination.

The masking also helps prevent the virus from circulating, reducing the chance it will mutate, possibly into a more virulent form that vaccines may bypass completely.

“If you allow the virus to circulate freely and don’t try to stop it, sooner or later there is a chance you’ll get another variant that could, I’m not saying it will, but it could be more problematic than that the delta. “Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

The CDC noted that blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans are at higher risk for Covid-19, but said nothing more about minority communities taking masking measures.

A universal masking recommendation might have helped protect communities at risk, including communities of color where vaccination rates have lagged partly due to distrust of the medical system and partly due to persistent problems with accessing health care, said Dr. Rhea Boyd, a pediatrician, studies the relationship between structural racism and health.

“If you live in an area where many people are not vaccinated, you are often exposed to the virus,” said Dr. Boyd.

Still, some experts understand the fine line the CDC has to walk in making recommendations for change – especially in masking, which has become a cultural and political hotspot.

Mask requirements can threaten the livelihood of restaurants, bars, and other indoor settings that serve food. In Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards temporarily reintroduced a nationwide mandate for interior masks earlier this month amid a surge in cases. But he made an exception for “anyone who has a drink or meal”.

By defining localized benchmarks, the agency’s mask recommendation gives “everyone something to look forward to,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. “Ultimately, the CDC is a science agency that responds to politicians.”

Even so, he added, “You should wear a mask when you are inside.”