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U.S. well being consultants attempt to ease Covid vaccine fears as AstraZeneca’s shot faces overview in Europe

U.S. health experts try to ease Covid vaccine fears as AstraZeneca's shot faces review in Europe

A photo illustration of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the Copes pharmacy in Streatham on February 4, 2021 in London, England.

Dan Kitwood | Getty Images

Medical experts in the US are trying to allay fears that Covid-19 vaccines may be unsafe after several European countries suspended AstraZeneca’s shot after reports of blood clots in some recipients.

On Tuesday, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania became the youngest countries to join a growing list of nations to stop using the AstraZeneca Oxford shot because of blood clot problems. Germany, France, Italy and Spain said Monday they would also stop administering the shot.

The European Medicines Agency, which assesses drug safety for the EU, convened a meeting on Thursday to review the results. So far it has been claimed that the benefits of the shot in preventing hospitalizations and death still “outweigh the risk of side effects.” The World Health Organization agreed and on Wednesday urged countries to keep using AstraZeneca’s shots.

Without the results of the upcoming European Medicines Agency meeting, it’s hard to tell if the vaccines are causing the reported blood clots, US medical experts told CNBC, but the drug giant already has a PR mess on its hands. Some doctors in the US fear that European nations are reacting prematurely to political pressure and safety concerns, and extensive efforts will be required to restore confidence in the vaccine when it is approved online.

“This vaccine is now a problem,” said Dr. William Schaffner, epidemiologist and professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, told CNBC in a telephone interview.

“I think if the vaccine is cleared – not guilty – there will have to be a significant public relations effort in Europe and around the world to restore confidence in this vaccine,” he said.

No red flags in the US

While the AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved for use in the U.S., White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci informed lawmakers on Wednesday that there will likely be enough safety and efficacy data to get dosing approval in April.

When asked if the suspension of AstraZeneca in European countries could create anxiety among Americans taking other vaccines, Fauci reiterated that the shots will undergo rigorous clinical trials and verified by an independent safety oversight body before they become widespread.

“The whole process is both transparent and independent and we are explaining this to people and taking the time to address their hesitation without being confrontational,” Fauci told lawmakers during a hearing with the House Committee on Energy and Trade.

This isn’t the first time Fauci has stressed the safety of the current vaccines amid AstraZeneca’s suspension. The infectious disease expert told MSNBC in an interview on Tuesday that scientists in the US are carefully examining the side effects of vaccine recipients, even after they have been authorized and used.

For example, medical experts were concerned about reports of severe allergic reactions – or anaphylaxis – in people vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna’s shock. However, these cases seem rare, he said, even though the nation has distributed at least one shot to 73 million adult Americans – more than 28% of the population.

“So far there are no safety signals that turn out to be red flags and you need to monitor these things very carefully,” said Fauci of the vaccines currently in use in the US

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told Reuters in an interview published Monday that he was “fairly reassured” by statements from European regulators that the problems might arise randomly.

“I was a bit surprised that so many countries decided to stop vaccine administration, especially at a time when the disease is so incredibly threatening even in most of those countries,” Collins later told CNN on Wednesday and added that he has no access to the “primary data that may have led to an alert”.

More data needed

Unwanted medical problems like blood clots occur regardless of whether people are vaccinated or not. The problem scientists are now trying to determine is whether the vaccines were the culprit, Schaffner said.

“We knew in the beginning when we started vaccinating that since we are targeting older adults, medical events would only occur every day in this population, even without vaccines,” Schaffner told CNBC.

“It is possible that if you were vaccinated on Monday, certain medical events could occur on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday,” he said. “The question is, did the vaccine speed up, fail, or cause these events?”

For its part, AstraZeneca said in a statement on Sunday that of the more than 17 million people in the EU and UK who have received a dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, fewer than 40 cases of blood clots have been reported to date Week.

The pharmaceutical company said that 15 events involving deep vein thrombosis and 22 events involving pulmonary embolism were reported among those vaccinated in the EU and the United Kingdom. These numbers suggest that adverse events occur less often than expected in the general population, not higher.

“I don’t think this is real, but I am very concerned because this is the vaccine we all count on worldwide,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of medicine at Emory University’s medical school, told CNBC in a telephone interview, he added that the shot costs less than its competitors. However, Del Rio noted that without the data it is difficult to determine whether the suspensions are appropriate.

“This requires extensive damage control,” said del Rio.

Politics could be the problem

There are some concerns that the issue with AstraZeneca’s vaccine could be more political. A dangerous time also comes: some European nations are battling another wave of new Covid-19 infections, even when vaccines are used.

So far, the introduction of vaccines in the EU has been slow compared to other countries such as the US and UK

“It is a major concern that Europe just doesn’t have that many people vaccinated,” said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, former Covid advisor to President Joe Biden, told CNBC on Tuesday. “It’s another reason we need to be concerned about the Covid situation in other countries, not just the US.

The suspensions follow a public dispute between the EU and AstraZeneca in January when the drug company said it was forced to cut its initial dose supply for the block. Several European countries also initially declined to recommend the shot to residents over 65 as there was insufficient evidence that it was effective before that decision was reversed.

“It may be that … governments are trying to respond to people’s concerns about the vaccine, not necessarily the data,” said Emanuel, a bioethicist and oncologist who served as vice provost on global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania acts.

“Actions don’t necessarily follow data. They follow more emotional responses to things like this,” he said.

– CNBC’s Sam Meredith, Holly Ellyatt and Silvia Amaro contributed to this report.

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Politics

How 535,000 Covid Deaths Spurred Political Awakenings Throughout America

How 535,000 Covid Deaths Spurred Political Awakenings Across America

Pamela Addison is, in her own words, “one of the shyest people in the world”. Certainly not the kind of person to file a comment on a newspaper, set up a stranger support group, or ask a United States senator to vote for $ 1.9 trillion.

No one is more surprised than she that she has done all of these things in the past five months.

Her husband Martin Addison, a 44-year-old health care worker in New Jersey, died on April 29 after a month of illness from the coronavirus. The last time she saw him was when he was loaded into an ambulance. At 37, Ms. Addison had to look after a 2-year-old daughter and a young son and make ends meet on her own.

“Seeing the impact my story had on people – it was very therapeutic and healing for me,” she said. “And knowing that I am doing it to honor my husband is what gives me the greatest pleasure because I am doing it for him.”

With the staggering coronavirus death toll in the United States – more than 535,000 people – come thousands of stories like theirs. Many people who have lost loved ones or whose lives have been compromised by long-distance ailments have turned to policy, soliciting responses and new guidelines from a government whose failures under the Trump administration allowed the country to become one of the hardest hit countries are going through the pandemic.

There’s Marjorie Roberts, who got sick while running a gift shop in an Atlanta hospital and now has lung scars. Mary Wilson-Snipes, who is still on oxygen more than two months after she returned from the hospital. John Lancos, who lost his 41-year-old wife on April 23. Janis Clark, who lost her 38-year-old husband on the same day.

In January, she and dozens of others took advocacy training on Zoom given by a group called Covid Survivors for Change. This month, the group organized virtual meetings with the offices of 16 Senators – 10 Democrats and six Republicans – and more than 50 group members campaigning for the coronavirus relief package.

The immediate purpose of the training was to get people, who in many cases had never attended a school council meeting, to do things like lobbying for a senator. The long term purpose was to address the problem of numbers.

Numbers are dehumanizing, as activists like to say. In sufficient quantities – for example 536,472 as of Wednesday morning – they are also numbing. It is for this reason that converting numbers into people is so often the job of activists seeking to change their policies after a tragedy.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, founded by a woman whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver, did that. Groups promoting stricter gun laws, such as Moms Demand Action and March for Our Lives, have tried to do this. Now, some coronavirus survivors think it’s their turn.

“This bond, this collective national trauma, is almost too difficult for people to grasp,” said Chris Kocher, executive director of Covid Survivors for Change who previously worked with gun violence survivors at Everytown for Gun Safety. “But you can understand a story and a lived life.”

Mr Kocher started organizing CSC last summer – on a “minimal” budget, he said – and the group kicked off publicly in October with a memorial service with Dionne Warwick.

Just before campaigning for their Senators on March 3, CSC members heard from someone who was once in their position: Georgia representative Lucy McBath, who joined Moms Demand Action after her son Jordan Davis was killed in 2012. She discussed her own experiences of transitioning from personal tragedy to political activism and how survivors’ stories might influence elected officials.

A CSC member, Ms. Wilson-Snipes, 52, also worked with Moms Demand Action. She started a chapter in Junction City, Kan. After her son Felix was fatally shot in 2018. In November she got Covid-19 and was hospitalized with pneumonia.

Ms. Wilson-Snipes came home on Christmas Eve with an oxygen machine that she still needs. Her lungs are still inflamed, and her chest is still painful.

While the guidelines she promoted with Moms Demand Action are different from those she and others advocate with Covid Survivors for Change – like wearing masks and providing financial aid to people affected by the virus – she said the message was the same: “It could be in my family’s shoes, in my shoes. “

This was also the message Ms. Addison conveyed in an article after President Donald J. Trump contracted the coronavirus and told the nation, “Don’t be afraid of Covid.” That was the moment she got angry enough to speak, she said because Mr. Trump’s words were “probably the most painful words I had ever heard from a leader”.

Updated

March 17, 2021, 3:25 p.m. ET

The Star Ledger released Ms. Addison’s statement in October and she was shocked by the intensity of the reaction.

“I never really thought about it that much – that I could use my story to make change,” she said.

She decided to start a Facebook group for newly widowed parents and found her first members through comments on her comment. In January she took part in the Covid Survivors for Change training. This month, she and other members in New Jersey spoke to Senator Cory Booker’s office.

Another cohort spoke to the Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff’s office. One of them was Ms. Roberts, 60, the former gift shop manager with lung damage from the virus.

“March 26th I woke up, I was fine,” said Ms. Roberts. “And when the sun went down that night, my whole life and that of my entire family were forever changed.”

After the Ossoff meeting she called Mr. Kocher tearfully. For almost a year, she said, it was the first time she had felt heard.

The political mobilization of coronavirus survivors is still at an early stage, and it is impossible to know whether it will fade or solidify into something permanent after the pandemic ends. However, Covid Survivors for Change isn’t the only group seeking long-term change.

Another organization, Marked by Covid – founded by Kristin Urquiza, who lost her father to the virus and spoke at the Democratic National Convention – recently launched a comprehensive political platform. Among other things, it calls for a “public health workforce” of one million people to take on tasks such as contact tracing, a reimbursement program similar to the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, and a commission to review the government’s pandemic response.

The platform also includes much more contentious proposals, such as a federal job guarantee, universal health and child care, debt relief for doctors and students, and a ban on imports of products related to deforestation. Ms. Urquiza said the idea is to address factors that make pandemics more likely and make Americans economically safe enough to weather crises.

“It’s really not just about making sure we’re responding to the most pressing parts that are right in front of our faces,” she said.

Covid Survivors for Change, on the other hand, has no official platform. Although members campaigning for Congress did so in support of President Biden’s stimulus package, the group is impartial and has focused on training survivors to further the policies they have chosen.

Several members said the virus pulled them into the political arena in ways that shocked them a year ago.

Janis Clark, 65, said her husband Ron Clark has always been politically active. “Whenever he saw politics, it was like, ‘Here comes the half-hour dissertation,'” she said with a laugh. “I would get nervous about PTA functions.”

Mr Clark died on April 23 after two weeks at home with a fever of 104 and over three weeks on a ventilator. He never found out that his daughter was pregnant.

Desperate to understand what the virus number really meant, Ms. Clark began to write. She wrote to the New York Democrat Paul Tonko, who represents her district around Albany. She wrote to Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. Little did she know that they probably wouldn’t answer.

“I just wanted someone to hear my story,” she said. “And it was like, how do you reach out to these people? I don’t know what the right way is. I never wrote anything to my congressman. “

In February, Ms. Clark signed an open letter organized by Covid Survivors for Change. She urged the senators to pass an aid package and called for a funeral reimbursement program and more medical resources for survivors. Now she thinks she could do more – maybe even take part in a demonstration if she’s sure.

For some people it feels like building something out of rubble.

Mr. Lancos met his wife Joni Lancos when he was working as an interpreter for the National Park Service at Federal Hall in Manhattan and she was a clerk on the third floor. Her first date was November 3, 1977. He took her to a Broadway show with Danish pianist Victor Borge.

In April last year, 41 years and 15 days after their wedding and less than 18 hours after her first symptoms, she died in an intensive care unit in Brooklyn

There was no memorial service, not when the streets of New York screamed day and night with the sirens of ambulances that carried the dying. Seventy-year-old Mr. Lancos searched in isolation the debris of grief and his own infection that left him with brain fog and short-term memory loss. The funeral home sent him five photos of a rabbi praying over his wife’s coffin.

“That was it,” said Mr. Lancos through tears. “That was my funeral for my wife when I saw these five photos.”

On March 3, he was one of the Covid Survivors for Change members speaking to the office of Mr Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader. Then he recorded a short message for a video.

“I think Joni would -” he said, pausing to take a calm breath, “be proud of what I did today.”

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Health

Some Lengthy Covid Sufferers Really feel Higher After Getting the Vaccine

Some Long Covid Patients Feel Better After Getting the Vaccine

A survey of 345 people, mostly women and mostly in the UK, found that two weeks or more after the second dose of vaccine, 93 felt slightly better and 18 felt normal again – a total of 32 percent reported improved long-term Covid symptoms.

In this survey by Gez Medinger, a London-based filmmaker who experienced post-Covid symptoms, 61 people, just under 18 percent, felt worse. Most of them reported only a slight decrease in their condition. Almost half – 172 people – said they didn’t feel any different.

Another survey by the Survivor Corps, a group of over 150,000 Covid survivors, found that on March 17, 225 out of 577 respondents reported some improvement, while 270 felt no change and 82 felt worse.

Jim Golen, 55, of Saginaw, Minnesota, believes some long-term Covid symptoms have worsened since he was vaccinated. Mr. Golen, a former hospice nurse who also has a small farm, has had months of trouble including blood clots in the lungs, chest pain, brain fog, insomnia, and shortness of breath with every effort. At the end of last year, after seeing several doctors, “I finally felt better,” he said.

Since receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in mid-January, his chest soreness and shortness of breath have returned with a vengeance, especially when taxing himself on activities like collecting sap from maple trees on his farm. Even so, Mr Golen said he was “very happy” to be vaccinated, stressing that the effects of Covid were worse and that it was crucial to prevent it.

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Business

German Covid circumstances rising ‘exponentially’ amid dangerous vaccine pause

German Covid cases rising 'exponentially' amid risky vaccine pause

A health care worker will take care of a Covid 19 patient in the intensive care unit of the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart on Tuesday, January 12, 2021.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

It’s no secret that Germany has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, but a leading health expert in the country is now warning of an “exponential growth” in the number of infections.

It does so at a time when the country has stopped using the AstraZeneca University of Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine.

Epidemiologist Dirk Brockmann, an expert at the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, said a recent relaxation of Covid restrictions has allowed a faster spread of a more virulent variant of the virus that was discovered in the UK late last year.

“We are exactly on the flank of the third wave. That can no longer be denied. And at this point in time we relaxed the restrictions and that accelerates the exponential growth,” Brockmann told the German ARD on Tuesday.

“It was completely irrational to relax here. It just powers this exponential growth,” he said.

Germany has been praised for its initial response to the pandemic, which has managed to lower cases through an effective track and tracing regime and keep the death rate lower thanks to its modern hospital infrastructure.

But over the past few months, over the winter, and with new, more virulent variants of the virus, it has seemed difficult to contain infections. The slow adoption of vaccines in the EU has not helped. The block has been criticized for its slower procurement and slower use of vaccines. The introduction of vaccinations in Germany faced several hurdles that frustrated officials and health professionals in the country.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and heads of state agreed earlier this month to gradually ease restrictions and an “emergency brake” that would allow authorities to reverse course if the number of infections rises above 100 per 100,000 for three consecutive days.

According to the government, the emergency brake is intended “in the event of exponential growth” in the cases. Merkel and the regional leaders are expected to review the measures on March 22nd and decide whether or not to proceed with the next step of reopening.

The number of cases per 100,000 reported Tuesday was 83.7 down from 68 a week ago, and the RKI has said the metric could hit 200 by the middle of next month, Reuters said in a report on Tuesday.

The lockdown in Germany is currently expected to last at least until March 28th, but some restrictions have already been relaxed. Schools, daycare centers and hairdressers will reopen at the beginning of the month.

Then a week ago, bookshops and florists were allowed to reopen and some museums too. However, regional rules may vary, with states being given discretion as to how and when to reopen certain case rates.

On March 22nd, Germany’s five-point reopening plan had envisaged that some restaurants, theaters and outdoor cinemas could be reopened. But the rising number of infections could derail that schedule.

Vaccine suspension

The epidemiologist’s key comments come from the fact that Germany and a handful of other European countries have decided to suspend the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford amid concerns about reports of blood clots in a handful of people who have been vaccinated.

The move has baffled experts around the world as the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency (both of which are conducting a safety review of the vaccine) insist that all available evidence shows that the vaccine is safe and effective, rather than asking for a higher one Risk of blood clots, which are common in the general population.

The vaccine manufacturer itself has highlighted that the data shows that the number of blood clots in the vaccinated population was actually lower than expected.

WHO and EMA, due to release the results of their safety review Thursday, say the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks and that countries shouldn’t interrupt their vaccination programs. Nevertheless, more than a dozen European countries have stopped using it. According to experts, this could lead to a dangerous increase in infections and deaths.

“Latest figures suggest 40 fatal cases for every 20 million cases vaccinated with Astra-Zeneca shocks. Every single case is always terrible, but that percentage is statistically insignificant. Instead, vaccination delays cost Europe about 2,000 more deaths a day – and tens of billions of euros for closings, closed shops, “said Guido Cozzi, professor of macroeconomics at the University of St. Gallen, in a note on Tuesday.

Even though public health authorities like WHO and EMA reiterated on Thursday that the vaccine is safe, experts fear that more damage has already been done to the vaccine’s reputation.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine has already faced several hurdles ranging from question marks about trial methods and data to false hesitation about the vaccine’s effectiveness in those over 65 and disputes over delays in delivery to the EU. Real-world data shows the vaccine is extremely effective at preventing severe Covid cases, hospitalizations and adult deaths.

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Health

Europe’s suspension of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine is damaging

Europe's suspension of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine is damaging

LONDON – The decision of many European countries to stop using the Oxford-AstraZeneca University coronavirus shot could have far-reaching ramifications, analysts say, as vaccine uptake and the wider vaccination program are already lagging behind in the region.

Sweden and Latvia were the last countries to stop using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday over concerns about blood clots. The move follows, among others, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Ireland to temporarily suspend use of the vaccine as a precautionary measure, while assessing whether there is a connection between the shot and an increased risk of blood clots.

The World Health Organization, drug regulators, and the vaccine maker itself have tried to downplay persistent safety concerns. There is currently no evidence to suggest that there is a link between the shot and an increased risk of developing blood clots, which are common in the general population.

In particular, the WHO has asked the countries not to pause with the shot in their vaccination rollouts. The Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has checked the available data and is in close contact with the EU Medicines Agency, the European Medicines Agency.

Additional expert guidance is expected to be announced shortly after the security reviews: the WHO Security Committee will meet on Tuesday, while the EMA will meet on Thursday.

EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke said in a news conference on Tuesday that EU member states’ decision to suspend use of the vaccine could result in lower public confidence in the shot, which affects vaccines confidence, but our job is to make sure that the products we approve are safe. “

It’s not the first time Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine has come under pressure as the drug maker was previously asked about its testing method and data, the effectiveness of the shot in those over 65, and a publicized dispute with the EU Delivery of supplies to the block.

However, health experts and policy analysts are questioning whether much of Europe’s decision to suspend use of the AstraZeneca shot is misplaced and is likely to further damage or even cost lives confidence in the vaccine if a third wave of infections is observed is Paris to Prague, and the introduction of shots by the EU is already slow.

“At this stage, national regulators are likely to act conservatively and out of caution. A risk-averse approach will help reassure the public and limit the impact on future adoption. But the prospect of a longer review or an outright ban cannot be ruled out, “said Federico Santi, Senior Europe Analyst at Eurasia Group, in a statement on Monday.

“Either way, the damage has been done. Willingness to take the AstraZeneca vaccine has already been lower than that of mRNA vaccines available in the EU, as the effectiveness of the headlines and initial confusion about its suitability for those over 65 years of age initially began were confused, “he said.

Some wonder if there was a political element behind the decision to pause the vaccine, as there have been disputes about it in the past.

Several European countries initially decided not to recommend the vaccine for people over 65 as there wasn’t enough evidence that it was effective before reversing that decision as more data became available showing it was the number severe Covid infections and hospital stays were highly effective in reducing deaths.

Such decisions, which were not supported by derogatory remarks from some European heads of state and government (French President Emmanuel Macron once said the vaccine was “virtually ineffective” for those over 65), were viewed by some Europeans only as reluctant to Oxford -AstraZeneca viewed vaccine. The introduction of vaccination in the EU is already much slower than in the UK and US, and the bloc leadership has come under fire for its vaccination strategy.

“We know where this is going, it will lead to a loss of confidence in the vaccine,” Natasha Loder, health policy editor for The Economist, told the BBC’s “Today” program on Tuesday.

When asked whether the suspension had a political dimension, Loder said, “It could be that this vaccine feels bad.” Nevertheless, the decision has “no rational basis” and could be dangerous. “This precautionary principle is nonsense when you are in the middle of a pandemic,” Loder said.

“This is a safe vaccine and when they realize that this is a safe vaccine in Europe they will have to face the aftermath of all this media coverage.”

However, not all EU countries are following the same path. Belgium, Poland and the Czech Republic say they will continue to use the shot, saying the benefits outweigh the risks.

AstraZeneca has vigorously defended its vaccine, stating in a statement Sunday that the number of blood clots recorded after vaccination was fewer than would naturally be expected.

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Business

Moderna Begins Testing Its Covid Vaccine in Infants and Younger Kids.

Moderna Begins Testing Its Covid Vaccine in Babies and Young Children.

The pharmaceutical company Moderna has started a study testing its Covid vaccine in children under the age of 12, including babies as young as six months, the company said Tuesday.

The study is expected to enroll 6,750 healthy children in the United States and Canada.

“There is a great demand for information about vaccination in children and how it works,” said Dr. David Wohl, the medical director of the University of North Carolina Vaccination Clinic, who is not involved in the study.

In a separate study, Moderna is testing its vaccine on 3,000 children aged 12 to 17 years.

Many parents want protection for their children, and vaccinating children should help create the herd immunity that is believed to be critical to ending the pandemic. The American Academy of Pediatrics has called for vaccine studies to be expanded to include children.

Every child in Moderna’s study receives two recordings 28 days apart. The study will consist of two parts. In the first case, children aged 2 to under 12 can receive two doses of 50 or 100 micrograms each. People under the age of 2 may receive two exposures of 25, 50, or 100 micrograms.

In each group, the first children to be vaccinated are given the lowest doses and monitored for reactions before later participants are given higher doses.

The researchers then conduct an interim analysis to determine which dose is the safest and most effective for each age group.

Children in the second part of the study receive the doses or placebo shots selected by the analysis, which consist of salt water.

The children will be followed for a year to look for side effects and measure antibody levels, which will allow researchers to determine if the vaccine is effective. Antibody levels will be the main indicator, but researchers will also look for coronavirus infections with or without symptoms.

Dr. Wohl said the study was well designed and likely efficient, but asked why the children should only be observed for one year when adults in Moderna’s study were observed for two years. He also said he was a bit surprised that the vaccine was being tested in children so young so soon.

“Should we first learn what happens to the older children before we go to the really young children?” Asked Dr. Well. Most young children don’t get very sick from Covid, although some develop severe inflammatory syndrome that can be life-threatening.

Johnson & Johnson has also announced that it will test its coronavirus vaccine in babies and toddlers after first testing it in older children.

Pfizer-BioNTech is testing its vaccine in children ages 12-15 and plans to switch to younger groups. The product is already approved for use in the USA from the age of 16.

Last month, AstraZeneca began testing its vaccine in the UK in children 6 years and older.

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Health

U.S. higher on Covid vaccines, European-like surge unlikely

Pfizer sending fewer Covid vaccine vials to account for extra doses

Coronavirus developments in Europe are unlikely to be early signs of what will happen weeks later in the US, partly due to America’s advances in vaccinating its population, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner’s comments on Squawk Box come a day after White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci said the situation in Europe shows why U.S. states shouldn’t completely abandon pandemic precautions right now.

Italy is putting stricter business restrictions in certain parts of the country after a surge in new infections, including an upcoming nationwide lockdown for the Easter weekend. Health officials in Germany have also warned of an increase in Covid cases.

“I used to say that we are four to maybe six weeks behind Europe, and we were,” said Gottlieb, referring to earlier phases of the global health crisis. “Everything that happened in Europe happened here at some point. Now the tables have turned. We are ahead of Europe.”

“I don’t think that the conditions in Europe and the situation in Europe inevitably predict what will happen here, as we in our population have much more immunity, both against previous infections – which they have – and now against vaccinations” added Gottlieb, a board member at Pfizer, which makes a Covid vaccine.

According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, around 9.5% of the vaccine-able population in the member states of the EU and the European Economic Area had at least one Covid shot. About 7.5% of Italians aged 18 and over and 8.5% of Germans aged 18 and over had at least one dose of Covid vaccine, according to ECDC data.

In contrast, 27% of the American adult population have received at least one Covid shot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines both require two doses for complete protection of immunity. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which requires only a single shot, was recently cleared for use by the European Union. US regulators gave J & J’s vaccine emergency approval late last month after clearing Pfizer and Moderna in December.

“I think we should worry that things may turn in a direction we cannot predict,” admitted Gottlieb, who previously urged states to continue wearing face masks to prevent coronavirus transmission. In fact, he said ending mask mandates should be the last public health measure to be lifted.

However, the former FDA head of the Trump administration said newly emerging strains of Covid, such as variant B.1.1.7, first discovered in the UK, have proven to be less of a problem in the US than in other parts of the world.

“Right now, B.1.1.7 is pretty common in the US. It’s more than 50% of cases in Texas, Florida, and Southern California, and you’re not seeing the big upsurge in cases that we might have expected once this variant in has found support in the United States, “said Gottlieb, attributing it to the extent of previous infection in the country and vaccination rates.

Last week, he estimated on CNBC that about 50% of Americans have “some form of immunity” to the coronavirus.

“The fact that we haven’t seen the rise in the coronavirus … even though B.1.1.7 is becoming the predominant burden in the United States is, in my opinion, a good sign,” Gottlieb said on Monday.

New York, where researchers discovered a new strain called B.1.526, is an area of ​​concern for Gottlieb. He said there was evidence that certain mutations of the virus in this strain “could make it more resistant to our vaccines and increase the chances of people being re-infected”.

“We really don’t understand this mutation very well, but this is cause for concern so we need to watch this pretty closely,” he said, adding that the next few weeks should give officials more responses.

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.

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify the groups receiving vaccinations.

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Health

CDC chief warns of one other Covid surge as Individuals journey for spring break

CDC chief warns of another Covid surge as Americans travel for spring break

Passengers arrive for American Airlines flights at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois on February 05, 2021.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

The US could still see a renewed spike in coronavirus – even if vaccinations against Covid-19 surge across the country – as states relax restrictions and more Americans travel to spring break, the centers’ head warned disease control and prevention on Monday.

“With warmer weather coming, I know it is tempting to relax and lose our vigilance, especially after a harsh winter that unfortunately saw the most cases and deaths during the pandemic,” said CDC Director Dr . Rochelle Walensky said at a press conference.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) examined more than 1.34 million people on Sunday, 86,000 more than the same day a year ago, shortly after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

TSA screenings have exceeded 1 million every day since Thursday, the highest volume in a year. While air traffic is well below 2019 levels, despite the CDC’s warning of non-essential travel, more and more Americans are returning to heaven, even those who are fully vaccinated.

Although many colleges in the US have scaled back their spring break to curb parties and infection, Biden’s top government officials are still concerned about travelers “enjoying a maskless spring break,” Walensky said.

“I beg you, for the sake of the health of our nation,” Walensky said at the briefing on Monday. “The cases rose last spring, they rose again in the summer, they will climb now if we no longer take precautions, if more and more people are being vaccinated.”

Even with infections declining and vaccine adoption rapidly growing, the US continues to report a dangerously high baseline of daily cases that could be higher if Americans lose their vigilance, Biden’s top health officials have warned. Around 37.5 million people in the US, about 11% of the population, have been fully vaccinated to date, according to the CDC.

The U.S. has come a long way since early January when it hit a weekly average of just over 250,000 new cases per day. According to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the nation reports an average of 53,670 new infections per day for the past week, a 10% decrease from the previous week.

– Leslie Josephs of CNBC and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Health

They Died Saving Others From Covid. Will Anybody Rely Them?

They Died Saving Others From Covid. Will Anyone Count Them?

Dr. Mehl, 73, the son of European immigrants who escaped the Holocaust, grew up in Brooklyn and spent his entire 50-year career at New York University, often kibbling with lab technicians, cafeteria staff, and security guards in the hallway. Colleagues named him NYU Mayor

He could also be blatantly emotional. “When he dropped me off at summer camp, he was the only crying father,” said his daughter.

Dr. Flour was a voracious reader – World War II history books, Israel and the United States were his favorites. Whenever he traveled, he woke up every morning to tackle a grueling route of museums, monuments, and restaurants. “He would plan the next vacation before we got home,” said his wife Nancy Greenwald.

At a time when many doctors are retiring, Dr. Flour insisted on working full-time even though he was finally ready to move out on Fridays last March. He laid out a precise plan for that first Friday: wake up, read the newspaper, go back to bed, have breakfast, and then take a nap. But he woke up that day with a backache, and when it got unbearable, Ms. Greenwald decided to call an ambulance. (Four of the patients he treated last week had later tested positive for the virus.)

It was only when the rescue team refused to climb inside that Ms. Greenwald realized that her husband might have contracted the coronavirus. Her searest memory was standing outside New York University later that day when a long line of ambulances with flashing lights waited to take patients to the emergency room. A few days later, she also contracted Covid-19, but recovered quickly.

In one of his final pre-intubation discussions, Dr. Flour from his wife and daughter that he would be awake in 10 days, but not before he made fun of the lousy food. He was on a ventilator for 50 days and died on May 20.

If you are thinking of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). For a list of additional resources, see SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

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Health

Merkel’s occasion fares badly in state elections, third Covid wave hits

Merkel's party fares badly in state elections, third Covid wave hits

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on September 30, 2020 in Berlin.

Michele Tantussi | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party collapsed after defeating two important state elections on Sunday, which put the country’s leadership in even more distress as Germany appears to be facing a “third wave” of coronavirus infections.

The ruling party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany recorded the worst performance since the Second World War in the state elections this weekend and was behind the center-left Greens and the Social Democrats (SPD) in the vote in Baden-Württemberg Rhineland-Palatinate.

The results largely confirmed the political status quo in both federal states, with the incumbent Prime Ministers – Winfried Kretschmann from the Greens in Baden-Württemberg and Malu Dreyer from the SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate – winning the elections. The CDU took second place in both regional votes, followed by the right-wing alternative for Germany, although their support also declined.

Results of the state elections in Germany

CNBC

Paul Ziemiak, Secretary General of the CDU, admitted that the results for the center-right party were disappointing and said: “To be very clear, this is not a good election night for the CDU. We would have different and better results in the State wanted. ” Elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. “

The party’s poor performance can be seen in the preparations for the national elections in September – with four more state elections beforehand – and for the period after Merkel. The Chancellor announced in 2018 that she would not run for a fifth term, creating uncertainty about who would succeed her to take over Europe’s largest economy.

Arne Jungjohann, political scientist and member of the Green Academy of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, told CNBC that the results signaled that the CDU could get into trouble with the national vote in September.

“The CDU party under Angela Merkel built the image of being indispensable, of being the natural governing party, and this image has faded since last night (Sunday evening),” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”. “We saw in both states … that the parties can actually form governments without the CDU, and that is the signal from last night.”

Push election year

For some parties in Germany, however, the latest results are encouraging, especially for the environmentalists Greens, who also achieved good results in the local elections in Hesse this weekend.

This could herald a change in the political landscape later this year as the Greens are likely to become a coalition partner for the CDU in the next government. Jungjohann told CNBC that the Greens had established themselves in Germany as a “hinge party” that could rule both center-left and center-right. They are already part of coalitions in 11 out of 16 federal states. “They have become a federal political force despite being in opposition at the national level,” he noted.

Robert Habeck, green The party’s co-chairman said the results were “a great start to the super election year for us, and hopefully we’ll be able to take the tailwind of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate with full sails and continue to gain momentum in the US. ” Months to come. “

He added that the results reflected a loss of public confidence in the ruling CDU party due to what he described as “mismanagement” of the government during the pandemic and a corruption scandal that the party had in recent weeks over allegations made by several CDUs Legislators have taken advantage of deals to procure face masks in the early days of the pandemic. The allegations have led to several resignations.

Winds of Change?

After the results of the weekend, the CDU is likely to be looking for the soul, as it is considering who could fill Merkel’s shoes as Chancellor after the elections in September.

Merkel, arguably the strongest and most respected leader in Europe, was generally seen as a safe couple during her leadership and is helping steer the euro zone through the financial crisis. However, she has been criticized in Germany for her decision to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the country in 2015. This move was seen as increasing support for the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland.

The CDU has not yet selected who it will lead in the federal elections, although the main candidates are Armin Laschet, chairman of the CDU, and Markus Soeder, chairman of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union.

Angela Merkel (CDU, lr), Armin Laschet (CDU), Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Markus Söder (CSU), Prime Minister of Bavaria, talk to the heads of government.

Image Alliance | Image Alliance | Getty Images

A decision is expected in April or May, although the CDU’s defeats this weekend will increase the pressure on party leaders to quickly nominate a candidate, according to Carsten Brzeski, global macro chief at ING.

“With the results on Sunday, the chances of the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder of being the third Bavarian to lead the CDU to national elections have increased significantly,” he said in a note on Monday.

“In our view, Sunday’s state elections … showed clear dissatisfaction with the national government,” he said, noting that “the main message for the September elections is that the electorate is seeking continuity, but it is unclear what continuity exists. “

Coronavirus suffers

Germany was lauded last year for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and for its robust system of tracking and quarantining contacts that helped contain the spread of the virus and modern hospital infrastructure that helped prevent the high number of deaths contributed, seen praised in other European countries, particularly Italy, Spain, Great Britain and France.

However, in recent months, like other countries, it has had to grapple with the spread of more infectious variants of the virus, which in some cases has spiked it, aided by the winter season and a slow roll-out of Covid vaccines across the country .

National surveys show that support for the CDU rose at the beginning of the pandemic and has remained relatively high over the past 12 months. Whether this continues, however, could be determined by the government’s handling of a third wave of infections, just as citizens are desperate to get their lives back to normal. On Friday, the head of the German health department warned that a third wave had already started.

The political scientist Jungjohann noted that support for the CDU is now waning. “Most people are now saying that the vaccination rollout is not going well and now we’ve seen the corruption scandal unfold and it’s still going on. It is still unclear who will try to follow Angela Merkel,” he said . “It looks like a moment of crisis (against this backdrop) towards the elections.”