Tag: Covid

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Health

UK instances of Covid variant recognized in India double in a single week

UK cases of Covid variant identified in India double in one week

Hounslow, London, which has become one of the U.K.’s biggest hotspots for the variant of coronavirus first identified in India, on Thursday 27th May 2021.

Tejas Sandhu | MI News | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Cases of the Covid-19 variant first identified in India have more than doubled in England within one week, the country’s health authority said.

The number of cases of the strain had reached 6,959 by Wednesday, an increase of 3,535 cases from the previous week.

The B.1.617.2 variant, a highly contagious triple-mutant strain of the coronavirus, is likely to be more transmissible than the variant first identified in England last fall, Public Health England said Thursday.

Bolton, Bedford and Blackburn were the most affected areas in England, according to PHE, although it said there were small numbers of cases of the variant in most parts of the country.

Hospitalizations were also rising in some areas, PHE added, noting that most hospital admissions were in unvaccinated people.

Research published by PHE last week showed that two doses of Covid vaccines gives people high levels of protection against the B.1.617.2 strain.

Jenny Harries, CEO of the U.K. Health Security Agency, said in PHE’s weekly update that the public should continue to act with caution as Britain eases lockdown restrictions.

“We now know that getting both vaccine doses gives a high degree of protection against this variant and we urge everyone to have the vaccine,” she said.

“Make sure that you remain careful, work from home if you can, meet people outside where possible and remember ‘hands, face, space, fresh air’ at all times.”

The U.K. has begun to tentatively lift lockdown restrictions in recent months, with the government hoping to remove all measures by June 21.

However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that the country “may need to wait” for a complete return to normality, although he told the BBC on Thursday there was nothing “currently in the data” to suggest the June unlocking would be derailed.

Johnson announced earlier this month that the U.K. would accelerate second vaccine doses for the over-50s and clinically vulnerable in an effort to combat the spread of the B.1.617.2 strain.

More than 62.6 million vaccines had been given in the U.K. by May 26, with 73% of the adult population having received their first dose. Almost half of British adults have been fully vaccinated with both doses.

On May 22, 883 people were in hospital with Covid-19 in the U.K. — a huge drop from January’s peak of 39,249.

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Health

UK approves Janssen single-dose Covid vaccine to be used

Pausing use of J&J Covid vaccine will not affect timeline of getting U.S. vaccinated, says doctor

A box of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson is pictured in Grubbs Pharmacy on Capitol Hill on Monday April 12, 2021.

Tom Williams | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

LONDON – The UK Medicines Agency approved Janssen’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine for use on Friday.

The UK drug and health products regulator announced that doses are expected to be available in the UK later this year.

The UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce has secured 20 million doses for launch across the UK. She initially received 30 million doses, but changed the order as the vaccination program continues on what the government calls “unprecedented” levels.

Earlier this year, the vaccine was found to be 67% effective in preventing infection and 85% in preventing severe cases of Covid and hospitalization. Janssen is a Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Friday that approval of the Janssen vaccine would boost the country’s “hugely successful” vaccination program.

“As Janssen is a single-dose vaccine, it will play an important role in the months ahead as we redouble our efforts to encourage everyone to get their pokes and possibly start a booster program later this year.” he said in a statement.

The vaccine can be stored in refrigerators at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, which makes it easier to store and transport than some alternative vaccines.

The vaccine is the fourth to be approved for use in the UK. Together with the alternatives Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, it was approved by the MHRA.

The Vaccine Taskforce has secured early access to more than 500 million doses from eight vaccine candidates, including those developed by Novavax, GlaxoSmithKline and CureVac, and the four that the UK has already approved for use.

Safety and effectiveness

The government said it was in regular contact with the vaccine manufacturers to optimize supplies and prepare for a potential vaccination booster program later in 2021.

Janssen’s Covid-19 vaccine is currently involved in a government study to assess the safety and effectiveness of a third dose to boost immunity to the virus. The Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines each require two doses for patients to achieve optimal immunity.

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization will make updated recommendations on the use of the Janssen vaccine prior to its launch.

Janssen’s vaccine is already being used elsewhere, including the United States and the European Union.

Health officials have raised concerns about possible links between the vaccine and rare blood clots, but regulators have found that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks.

Janssen is considering the possibility of a two-dose program for his vaccine, according to the UK Department of Health and Welfare.

The UK government has set a goal of offering all adults in the country a Covid vaccine by the end of July.

More than 62.6 million vaccines had been administered in the UK as of Wednesday, with 73% of the adult population receiving their first dose. Almost half of British adults were fully vaccinated with both doses.

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Business

Olympic Pin Buying and selling Is One other Casualty of Covid This 12 months

Olympic Pin Trading Is Another Casualty of Covid This Year

A few years ago, Bud Kling had three rooms added to his house in the Pacific Palisades in California. The builders used extra concrete along with a reinforcing metal beam — and not because Mr. Kling was expecting a crowd. The rooms weren’t for people. They were designed to house and showcase his 30,000-strong collection of Olympic pins, the colorful and endlessly varied souvenirs that have been bought and traded at the Games for decades.

Even when the builders were finished, Mr. Kling, a 74-year-old tennis coach, still had far more pins than he could fit in his home. He also owns about 100,000 “trading pins” — multiples of the same pin that can be swapped — and he hauls some of them to the Games. His stash is stacked in his garage and in rented storage space.

“I have a very patient wife,” said Mr. Kling, unnecessarily.

When organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced that the 2020 Games would be delayed for a year and, in March, that no overseas spectators would be allowed into the country, few were as despondent as Mr. Kling and other hard-core Olympic pin traders. To them, the Games are only partly about sports. For every minute they spend watching competition, they spend one minute — maybe two — trading pins, either in impromptu scrums outside venues or at designated trading centers.

The collapse of the pin trading market will hardly register in the ledger of losses incurred by the Tokyo Games, an enterprise that the country’s organizers say will cost more than $15 billion. About $3 billion of that stems from renegotiating contracts caused by the yearlong delay. But stuffing the national coffers hasn’t been the point of hosting since the price tag for throwing the world’s largest gathering started to soar more than a decade ago. Countries vie for the Games hoping for the ultimate look-at-me moment, a slick, multiweek advertisement aimed at the entire planet.

Tokyo will get a healthy portion of self-promotion if the Games go ahead, which organizers vow will happen despite national polls suggesting that an overwhelming number of people in Japan — who are contending with a prolonged fourth virus wave — would prefer another delay or outright cancellation.

For Olympics goers around the world, these Games will be remembered as the party they had to skip. That includes about 250 pin traders, people who plan their lives around the two-year interval between the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Never heard of Olympic pins? They are a portable, wearable bit of promotion and branding for athletic delegations, national Olympics committees, corporate sponsors, news media outlets and cities bidding for the Games. (The New York Times makes its own pins and gives a couple dozen to reporters covering events.)

To the unmoved, the pins are the kind of $7 memento you toss in a drawer, or a wastepaper basket, as soon as you return from the Games. Thousands of people buy pins, and many spontaneously trade them once they see a trading hive outside a venue. Host countries cater to both casual and ardent fans by producing vast quantities of pins, which are sold at souvenir shops.

Japan was prepared for pin-crazed crowds. The country’s organizers have made 600 different officially licensed pins, a spokesman at the Games said, and there are 12 souvenir stores set up around Tokyo. Now, demand for this bounty is an open question. It’s not just that Japanese fans will be the only ones admitted to the Games. Trading is such a hands-on, face-to-face activity that there are worries that it might be discouraged — or even banned.

The press office at the Games would not comment other than to send along a “playbook,” published in February, outlining safety protocols. Pin trading wasn’t mentioned, but one of the principles stated that attendees should “keep physical interactions with others to a minimum” and “avoid closed spaces and crowds where possible.” That makes pin trading all but impossible.

For years, Coca-Cola, a longtime Olympic sponsor, has built pin trading centers on the grounds of the Games. A spokeswoman said there would be pin-related promotions, including a chance to acquire pins representing Japan’s 47 prefectures. Whether the company will open and host a pin trading center in Tokyo, the spokeswoman said, is still under evaluation.

For years, Mr. Kling has been recruited by Coca-Cola to help oversee and manage its pin trading centers, a volunteer position that has made him the unofficial pin czar of the Games. Among his many roles is to enforce etiquette and unwritten rules. That means ensuring that tables are shared fairly, counterfeit pins are weeded out and newcomers aren’t overcharged.

“Occasionally I’ll hear an older guy tell a kid, ‘My pin is much bigger, so you need to trade me two for it,’” he said. “We don’t want anyone grinding down an 8-year-old.”

Some are in it for the money. There are more than 80,000 eBay listings for Olympic pins. These speculators had a golden moment in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, when, for reasons that nobody ever explained, the organizers failed to produce enough pins. A trading frenzy ensued. A few people earned $40,000 in a few days. The pin economy had a tulip mania moment.

“Guy I know made a down payment on his house with money he earned in Nagano,” said Sid Marantz, a pin trader who has been to 17 Olympics and is another regular volunteer at Coca-Cola pin trading centers.

At 76, Mr. Marantz is retired from a family business that sold food ingredients, like salt and sugar. He got his hands on his first pin when his parents took him to the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He was a huge fan of Rafer Johnson, an all-rounder out of U.C.L.A. who won gold in the decathlon that year.

“I was just swept away by the whole thing,” he said.

He attended his next Games in Montreal in 1976 on a tour with Track & Field News, to which he subscribed. That was the first time, he said, that spectators got involved in pin trading on a large scale.

It’s an affordable hobby, at least in Mr. Marantz’s practiced hands. He estimates his whole collection has cost him about $10,000. That’s in large part because after the 1996 Games in Atlanta, he and three friends learned about a warehouse in Colorado — home to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee — filled with 750,000 unsold pins. They chipped in $35,000 and bought the entire lot. Each kept about 40,000 pins, and they sold the rest to pin collectors around the world.

“We called it ‘the motherlode,’” he said of the acquisition. “It means I go to the Games with pins that effectively cost me nothing. That’s why I’ll trade with absolutely anyone.”

Beyond making new friends, pin trading is about the quest for obscure, hard-to-find treasures. These include pins from African delegations, because they tend to field small teams. (Burundi’s pins are especially prized; the country brought nine athletes to Rio in 2016.) Any country that has recently changed its name will find itself in the cross hairs of pin traders. That means you, North Macedonia, which will compete at its first Games since Greece compelled it to add “North” to its name.

The pins of Japanese media companies have been sought after ever since Nagano, because they are often adorned with cute cartoon mascots. This time around, though, not even this genre will be hot. Pins from Tokyo 2020 — yes, it’s keeping the name, never mind the actual date — are going to be worth next to nothing, Mr. Marantz predicts. Supply is going to swamp demand.

Both Mr. Marantz and Mr. Kling had purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of tickets to events in Tokyo, money that has since been refunded. Only recently have they begun to accept that they really won’t be heading to Japan in a few weeks. On Friday, Japan’s government extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and other prefectures until at least June 20.

“It’s like a boulder falling,” Mr. Kling said of being forced to skip the Games, “and hitting you in the head.”

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Politics

Texas Gov. Abbott defends resolution to finish Covid unemployment enhance

Texas Gov. Abbott defends decision to end Covid unemployment boost

Texas governor Greg Abbott on Friday defended his decision to end the state’s unemployment surge after thousands of people signed a petition urging the Republican official to reverse his step.

“We have the demand for a workforce that people can return to work and the numbers in our state are safe enough for people to return to work,” Abbott said on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street.

“It’s time for America to get back to work,” said the Republican governor.

Abbott announced earlier this month that effective June 26, the state would reject the federally signed federal unemployment assistance programs in an effort to ease the economic burden of the Covid-19 pandemic.

These programs included a weekly $ 300 supplement to state unemployment benefits. At least 23 states have restricted use of federal unemployment programs.

Abbott said he had “the math behind this reasoning”.

“We have more vacancies than people in unemployment insurance, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. In addition, 18% of jobless claims submitted have been found to be fraudulent,” Abbott said.

A majority of Americans support the state’s efforts to end the rise in unemployment at the federal level, a recent Quinnipiac University poll found.

In Texas, the decision has caused some setbacks among those who say stopping the extra help will cause more pain to those already suffering. A petition asking Abbott to reverse his move has received approximately 8,000 signatures.

Abbott said Friday that ending the federal boost was critical to opening the state fully.

“The biggest challenge I hear from employers is that Texas is 100% open, employers are trying to hire, but restaurants and shops and other types of businesses can’t open as much as they want because they can’t win Access to the staff who need to open them, “he said.

“One of the biggest challenges is making sure employers can get workers there so we can truly be a fully open economy,” said Abbott.

Economists are unsure whether the rise in federal unemployment is causing potential workers to remain unemployed longer.

A working paper released earlier this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggested that the $ 300 increase could have little impact on job seekers’ willingness to take up jobs.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said he doesn’t think the $ 300 surge is causing individuals to turn down jobs.

“Americans want to work,” he said earlier this month.

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Health

WHO says Covid origin investigation is being ‘poisoned by politics’

WHO says Covid origin investigation is being 'poisoned by politics'

Executive Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergencies program Mike Ryan speaks at a news conference on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Denis Balibouse | Reuters

A top World Health Organization official said Friday that investigations into the origins of Covid-19 are being “poisoned by politics.”

U.S. President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he’s ordered intelligence agencies to conduct “a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of Covid-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”

The WHO has come under increasing pressure in recent days from U.S. and European officials to take another look at whether the coronavirus could have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, after a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report came to light, revealing that three researchers sought hospital care after falling ill with Covid-like symptoms in November 2019.

Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, asked if countries could separate the politics from the science.

“Putting WHO in a position like it has been put in is very unfair to the science we’re trying to carry out, and it puts us as an organization, frankly, in an impossible position to deliver the answers that the world wants,” Ryan said at a news briefing.

The WHO has been repeatedly accused of allowing the Chinese government to avoid a thorough investigation into the origins of Covid-19, which was first discovered in Wuhan in late 2019. At a Senate hearing earlier this week Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pressed White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on the WHO’s close ties to China.

“Can we agree that if you took (Chinese) President Xi Jinping and turned him upside down and shook him, the World Health Organization would fall out of his pocket?” Fauci responded by saying that he has no way of knowing China’s influence on the agency.

The hypothesis that Covid-19 came from a Wuhan virology lab was initially dismissed as a right-wing conspiracy theory, but it’s been gaining traction in recent weeks.

The majority of the intelligence community believes that it is equally plausible that the virus originated in a lab and in an animal. Federal health officials continue to maintain their position that it is more likely that the virus has zoonotic origins. The CDC’s website still states “we know that it originally came from an animal, likely a bat.”

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Health

Summer time to be low danger for Covid, however winter might be difficult

U.S. may never reach 'true herd immunity,' says Dr. Scott Gottlieb

The coronavirus threat in the US is likely to be on the low side this summer, but there is no guarantee that it will stay that way later this year, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday.

“I don’t think we should declare the mission accomplished. I think we should declare a short-term victory,” the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said on Squawk Box.

Coronavirus cases in the country have fallen as more Americans are vaccinated against Covid. According to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data, the 7-day average of new infections a day is 23,000. That has fallen by more than 50% since the beginning of May alone.

“I think we’ve done enough to give ourselves the opportunity to enjoy the summer and take a low risk this summer,” said Gottlieb, who headed the FDA from 2017 to 2019 and is now on the board of directors at vaccine company Pfizer . However, he added, “I think this will be a risk when we get into autumn and probably earlier into winter.”

Later on at CNBC, Gottlieb stated that he believed the risk was likely to increase in December and January.

“I think there are pockets all over the country that have low vaccination rates, that have people who haven’t been infected, so you’re going to see outbreaks. I don’t think we’re going to see anything on the scale of that, what we’ve seen in the past, “said Gottlieb to” Closing Bell “. “I think the public health steps we are going to take will be reactive, not proactive,” he added.

One reason for the cautious outlook for the colder months is that “we were able to see new variants,” said Gottlieb, who previously determined that respiratory pathogens such as the coronavirus generally spread more easily in winter. “I think we need to get better monitoring and sequencing of the strains so we can spot these variants faster,” he said.

The US cannot relax its efforts to have more people vaccinated either, said Gottlieb. This is a key factor in reducing risk across the country.

Around 50% of the country’s population had received at least one dose by Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gottlieb suggested that around 75% of the country could be vaccinated by the fall.

“So there is still a lot to be done. Right now we are on a pretty good way to do the right things,” he said.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, healthcare technology company Aetion, and Illumina biotech. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.

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Business

CDC eases summer time camp Covid steerage, says absolutely vaccinated teenagers do not want masks

CDC eases summer camp Covid guidance, says fully vaccinated teens don't need masks

kali9 | E + | Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday relaxed their public health guidelines for summer camps, stating that fully vaccinated teens do not need to wear face masks or stay three feet away from others.

Fully vaccinated teens should continue to wear masks when necessary, including at local businesses and in the workplace, according to the CDC. Camps can support staff or campers who continue to wear a mask even if they are vaccinated, the agency added.

While unvaccinated adolescents should continue to wear masks, the CDC said they generally do not need to wear masks outdoors unless they are in a “significant to high transmission” area, in a crowded environment, or during activities that involve continued close contact with others.

The CDC’s new guide is approaching Memorial Day holiday weekend, the start of the summer vacation and camping season for many Americans.

On Wednesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky advised House lawmakers that the agency is revising its public health guidelines for summer camps to include vaccinated adolescents. Walensky approved expanded use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in 12 to 15 year olds two weeks ago.

As of Thursday, more than 165 million Americans 12 and older had received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, according to the CDC. According to the CDC, more than 132 million Americans 12 and older are fully vaccinated.

Previous CDC guidelines recommended that all children wear masks, regardless of vaccination, with some exceptions for certain activities such as eating, drinking, or swimming. It has been criticized by some public health experts and parents who say the risk of spreading Covid outdoors is low and children are less likely to develop serious illnesses.

“My whole goal is to make sure the camps stay open and there are no outbreaks,” Walensky said during the hearing. She added that her own children didn’t go to camp last summer. “I want the camps to be open this summer.”

The guidance also comes two weeks after the CDC said fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a face mask or stay 6 feet away in most environments, whether outdoors or indoors. People who were not vaccinated should continue to wear masks, the agency said, as they continue to be at risk of mild or serious illness, death, and the risk of the disease spreading to others.

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Health

70 % Covid Vaccination Fee Might Be in Attain, New Ballot Suggests

70 Percent Covid Vaccination Rate May Be in Reach, New Poll Suggests

A new poll suggests the US may be on track to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the adult population against Covid-19 by the summer.

In the latest survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 62 percent of respondents said they had received at least one dose of vaccine, up from 56 percent in April. At the same time, around a third of those classified as “waiting” stated that they had already made vaccine appointments or that they would have planned to do so shortly.

Dr. William Schaffner, National Infectious Disease Foundation medical director and vaccine expert, found the results encouraging.

“I think there are many people on the fence worried about things moving too fast and possible side effects. However, those concerns will be allayed as more friends and acquaintances celebrate the vaccination,” said Dr. Schaffner, who did not participate in the monthly survey, the Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor.

“You get a growing sense of comfort and security that ‘people like me’ will be vaccinated,” which he said was essential in building confidence in the vaccines.

The two populations that saw the largest increases in vaccination rates from April to May were Latino adults (from 47 percent to 57 percent) and adults without a college degree (from 48 percent to 55 percent).

The telephone survey of 1,526 adults was conducted in English and Spanish from May 18-25.

On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine for children 12 years and older. The survey found that 40 percent of parents said either their child has already received at least one dose or will soon receive one.

However, the parents of younger children were much more cautious. Only about a quarter expressed willingness to have their children vaccinated once the shots have been approved for them.

The results suggest that efforts to protect as many young students as possible from Covid-19 at the start of the school year may face obstacles.

While public health experts welcomed the continued improvement in vaccination rates, they found that the pool of most willing adults was shrinking.

“There is almost no low hanging fruit at this point, but there is a path to a slow but steady increase in vaccination rates through improved access, information, advocacy and incentives,” said Drew Altman, president and chief executive officer of Kaiser Family Foundation.

President Biden’s goal is to achieve 70 percent adult vaccine coverage by July 4th. Dr. Schaffner said he thought the goal was possible. “We have to work harder,” he said.

The survey authors said the target was realistic because in addition to 62 percent of adults who received at least one dose, another 4 percent said they wanted the shot as soon as possible and another 4 percent – a third of the ” “wait and see” group said they had made an appointment or intend to do so within three months.

Despite the positive news, vaccination rates in adults who previously reported significant hesitation (7 percent) or outright rejection (13 percent) have remained unchanged for several months. And a third of the “wait and see” group said they would wait at least a year before taking the picture.

The survey also looked at attitudes towards vaccination incentives and the impact of government news about the shots. Financial incentives, such as the million dollar lottery in Ohio for the newly vaccinated, are being pushed back a little.

However, the survey found that such rewards can be successful motivators for people to get the shots. Fifteen percent of non-vaccinated adults in the survey said their state’s offer of $ 100 may make them reconsider, as well as free transportation and tickets to a sporting event or concert.

Earlier this month, people vaccinated at an event at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama were able to complete two winning laps on the track. (Cars and trucks, yes; motorcycles, no.) Similar incentives are being offered across the country.

About 20 percent of unvaccinated workers said they would be more likely to get the shots if their employer gave them paid time off for the dates and time needed to recover from side effects.

The report also showed that the public had some confidence in the government’s health-related messages, although many were confused by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s announcement earlier this month that vaccinated people could largely avoid face masks and social distancing. Over half said the CDC’s guidelines were generally clear and accessible, but about 40 percent found them confusing and cloudy.

Notably, 85 percent of people who were not vaccinated said that the CDC’s new guidelines no longer made them ready to be vaccinated.

But another cohort viewed government approval as a potential launch vehicle. The survey found that a third of unvaccinated adults, including 44 percent in the “wait and see” group, said they would be more likely to receive a vaccine once it received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech recently announced that they are making progress towards this goal.

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Business

To Take a look at Covid Protocols, Cruise Traces Flip to Volunteer Guinea Pigs

To Test Covid Protocols, Cruise Lines Turn to Volunteer Guinea Pigs

Since March of last year, cruise ships carrying more than 250 people have been prohibited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from sailing in U.S. waters. To start again, they need to follow a complex process that, in some cases, involves simulated cruises designed to test Covid-19 protocols. Hundreds of thousands of frustrated and restless cruise fans have lined up to be guinea pigs.

Jennifer Juenke is one of them.

“Ever since the C.D.C. shut down the cruise industry, we have been living through a complete nightmare,” said Ms. Juenke, one of more than 250,000 people who signed up for a test sailing with Royal Caribbean, a major cruise company. “It has been too long, and we are just raring to go.”

On Tuesday, Royal Caribbean became the first cruise line to receive approval from the C.D.C. to conduct simulated voyages, which are planned for its Freedom of the Seas ship starting from PortMiami in Florida in late June.

For some of the volunteers, it’s a way to offer support to the $150 billion industry, which has been decimated by the pandemic. For others it’s a chance to get a feel for what post-pandemic cruising will feel like. But for most who’ve raised their hands, it’s a way to sate their longing to get back on a boat after more than a year of being stuck onshore.

“The C.D.C. has been holding us all captive and I really can’t wait any longer, I can’t wait until July,” said Justin Marks, a 59-year-old retired Alabama resident, referring to one target date that has been floated for when ships might start sailing.

Mr. Marks, who has 12 cruises booked through 2022, is undeterred by the outbreaks onboard cruise ships at the start of the pandemic last year.

“I’m dying to be picked for the test cruise, mostly because I need to start cruising again for my sanity,” he said, “but also because I want to show the world how much safer a cruise ship is than any plane or hotel that has been allowed to operate throughout the whole pandemic.”

Exactly how the cruise lines will return to operations in the United States remains unclear. Earlier this month, the C.D.C. said it would allow cruise lines to skip test voyages if they attest that 98 percent of the crew and 95 percent of passengers on board a cruise are fully vaccinated.

Several major cruise companies have already announced Alaska sailings starting in late July, which will require all passengers to prove that they are vaccinated. But in Florida, the cruise lines’ biggest U.S. departure point, recently enacted state law bans businesses from requiring proof of immunizations from people seeking to use their services.

Florida officials have said they will not exempt the cruise lines. If cruise companies decide to sail with a mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated passengers, they will have to carry out simulation cruises with volunteers to test health and safety protocols.

That has avid cruisers like Mark Zumo, 53, from Baton Rouge, La., eager to help out, even though, he said, he realizes the test cruises will not be like the real thing. (He had 20 cruises canceled during the pandemic and has already booked 25 between this August and December 2022.)

“A lot of people think it’s going to be a free holiday, but I realize that it won’t be,” he said. “It’s about testing Covid protocols and could mean being confined to your room for the entire cruise.”

“But I’m more than willing to do it,” he continued. “When you look at the devastation caused by the shutting down of the cruise industry, it reaches so far — from farmers to port workers to hotels and taxi cabs. I’ll do whatever I can to help get things running again.”

The simulated voyages must be between two to seven days in length with at least one overnight stay, according to C.D.C. guidelines. They are required to test embarkation and disembarkation procedures, medical evacuations, onboard activities such as meal service and entertainment, recreational activities like fitness classes and swimming, and shore excursions.

All volunteers will be issued with a written notice advising them about the risks of participating in health and safety protocols that are unproved and untested in the United States.

Most of the simulation cruise volunteers said they are fully vaccinated and do not have safety concerns about testing out health protocols for upcoming voyages. More than 66,000 people joined Royal Caribbean’s Facebook group “Volunteers of the Seas” to express interest in the initiative. “I feel safer on a cruise ship than I do in my grocery store,” Ms. Juenke said. “Cruises have restarted in Europe and it’s going fine.”

MSC, a global cruise line based in Geneva, Switzerland, was the first major cruise company to resume international sailings in Europe, which it started last August. It has relied on a stringent testing and contact tracing program to avoid large Covid outbreaks like the one on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan last year where 700 people became infected with the disease and 14 people died.

“At the beginning we must appreciate that no one knew anything about the virus and how it behaved and was transmitted,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, the executive chairman of MSC Cruises and global chair of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s trade group.

“We have come so far from that moment in terms of scientific knowledge and technology,” he said.

On MSC European cruises, all guests receive antigen tests when they board and if they test positive, they are given an additional PCR test. Non-vaccinated guests boarding its cruises in Britain must also present proof of a PCR test taken 48 hours before they embark. Passengers are also tested mid-cruise after three or four days and are required to wear contact tracing bracelets so that they can be tracked down if someone they have come into contact with tests positive.

All passengers who test positive while on board are isolated until the ship returns to the port of embarkation or have the option to disembark at the next port of call if they need urgent medical attention. MSC said it had identified a handful of positive cases on board its ships since resuming operations last year, which were handled swiftly and effectively, but declined to provide the exact number of cases.

On Monday, four crew members on board Royal Caribbean’s newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, tested positive for Covid-19 en route to the United States from Israel. The ship was not carrying passengers and the crew members were immediately isolated before disembarking in Spain, Royal Caribbean said.

Mr. Vago views MSC’s protocols — which run to 700 pages — as a model for the industry and after participating in a recent technical round table discussion between the C.D.C. and cruise industry representatives in Washington, he said he is optimistic that U.S. cruises will begin again this summer.

“People have been really affected psychologically by this pandemic and we understand how important and urgent it is for them to be able to get back out there and see a sunset and mingle,” Mr. Vago said.

After receiving brain surgery last year and working night shifts as a surgery technician at a hospital, Cristie Nino, of Salinas, Calif., said she is ready to volunteer on a test cruise.

“I think I would be the perfect person to go on one of these test cruises because I’m not scared,” she said. “I’ve been on the Covid floor, I’ve seen Covid patients, I’ve been through the toughest part.”

Cruise ships, she said, “have always been a cesspool for viruses, like planes, and I think there were risks at the height of the pandemic, but now with vaccines and health and safety measures I think they are ready to go again.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list for 2021.

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Politics

Biden orders nearer evaluation of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak concept

Biden orders closer review of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak theory

Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on February 3, 2021.

Hector Retamal | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that he has ordered a closer intelligence review of what he said were two equally plausible scenarios of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden revealed that earlier this year he tasked the Intelligence Community with preparing “a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of Covid-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”

“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” Biden said in a statement.

“Here is their current position: ‘while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” said the president.

Biden used the Intelligence Community’s traditional language when they provide assessments to a president. This includes explaining to the president when different agencies within the IC disagree, and always giving the president the level of confidence they have in the accuracy of the raw intelligence.

Biden issued the new directives as the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, still officially unknown, come under increasing scrutiny.

The hypothesis that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, while initially dismissed by some as a conspiracy theory, has in recent months gained more mainstream traction.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky last week said in Senate testimony that a lab-leak origin “certainly” was “one possibility.”

White House officials told reporters Tuesday that China hasn’t been “completely transparent” in the global investigation into the origins of Covid-19, and that a full investigation is needed to determine whether the virus that’s killed almost 3.5 million people came from nature or a lab.

“We need to get to the bottom of this, whatever the answer may be,” White House senior covid-19 advisor Andy Slavitt told reporters at a covid briefing Tuesday. “We need a completely transparent process from China, we need the [World Health Organization] to assist in that matter and we don’t feel like we have that now.”

The World Health Organization said in March that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus was introduced to humans through an accidental lab leak. But that report was heavily criticized by scientists who said the WHO gave the possibility of a lab accident short shrift compared with a natural-origin scenario..

“The report lacks crucial data, information, and access. It represents a partial and incomplete picture,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time when asked about WHO’s stance on Covid’s origins.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which leads the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to CNBC.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

—- CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Amanda Macias contributed to this story.