Tag: Covid

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The Covid Battle Will get Extra Difficult

The Covid Fight Gets More Challenging

Biden and the states are facing a rapidly changing virus while Republicans have already started 2022. It’s Tuesday and this is your political tip. Sign up here to receive On Politics in your inbox every weekday.

The impeachment managers of the house forwarded the impeachment article to the Senate yesterday.

The 2020 elections are hardly behind us, but the conversation about 2022 has inevitably already started.

Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman announced yesterday that he would not run for another term next year to start a major battle in a GOP stronghold in the Midwest that will inevitably provide clues as to the direction of the Republican Party.

But the simple fact of Portman’s decision to withdraw – and the reasons he gave it – said something about the state of American politics. A veteran of the George W. Bush administration, Portman had developed a reputation in the Senate as a staunch conservative who nonetheless insisted on going down the aisle.

He helped enforce the new North American trade deal in 2019 and was part of the bipartisan coalition that pushed a pandemic relief package late last year and then pressured the House and Senate leaders to finalize it in late December.

Representative Jim Jordan, a die-hard ally of Trump, whose tumultuous district is likely to be redrawn this year – and not in his favor.

Covid19 vaccinations>

Answers to your vaccine questions

If I live in the US, when can I get the vaccine?

While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary from state to state, most doctors and residents of long-term care facilities will come first. If you want to understand how this decision is made, this article will help.

When can I get back to normal life after the vaccination?

Life will only get back to normal once society as a whole receives adequate protection against the coronavirus. Once countries have approved a vaccine, they can only vaccinate a few percent of their citizens in the first few months. The unvaccinated majority remain susceptible to infection. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines show robust protection against disease. However, it is also possible that people spread the virus without knowing they are infected because they have mild or no symptoms. Scientists don’t yet know whether the vaccines will also block the transmission of the coronavirus. Even vaccinated people have to wear masks for the time being, avoid the crowds indoors and so on. Once enough people are vaccinated, it becomes very difficult for the coronavirus to find people at risk to become infected. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve this goal, life could approach a normal state in autumn 2021.

Do I still have to wear a mask after the vaccination?

Yeah, but not forever. The two vaccines that may be approved this month clearly protect people from contracting Covid-19. However, the clinical trials that produced these results were not designed to determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. That remains a possibility. We know that people who are naturally infected with the coronavirus can spread it without experiencing a cough or other symptoms. Researchers will study this question intensively when the vaccines are introduced. In the meantime, self-vaccinated people need to think of themselves as potential spreaders.

Will it hurt What are the side effects?

The vaccine against Pfizer and BioNTech, like other typical vaccines, is delivered as a shot in the arm. The injection is no different from the ones you received before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported serious health problems. However, some of them have experienced short-lived symptoms, including pain and flu-like symptoms that usually last a day. It is possible that people will have to plan to take a day off or go to school after the second shot. While these experiences are not pleasant, they are a good sign: they are the result of your own immune system’s encounter with the vaccine and a strong response that ensures lasting immunity.

Will mRNA vaccines change my genes?

No. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a genetic molecule to boost the immune system. This molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse with a cell, allowing the molecule to slide inside. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus that can stimulate the immune system. At any given point in time, each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules that they produce to make their own proteins. As soon as these proteins are made, our cells use special enzymes to break down the mRNA. The mRNA molecules that our cells make can only survive a few minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzymes a little longer, so the cells can make extra viral proteins and trigger a stronger immune response. However, the mRNA can last a few days at most before it is destroyed.

If Jordan can win a statewide primary to follow Portman, it would mark a major victory for Trumpism in a state where Republican voters have historically been balanced between working-class white voters and more affluent suburban white Republicans. Think of John Kasich, and before that of William Saxbe: This is not supposed to be the most Trump-friendly Republican state.

The opposite is true in Arkansas, where Trump enjoyed some of his strongest support in the 2020 election (62 percent voted for him). That seems to make it fertile ground for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Trump White House press secretary, who yesterday announced her offer for Arkansas governor, her father’s old job.

If she wins, it would set a clear flag for Trump’s influence, at least in the strongest Republican stronghold.

Sanders sounded Trumplike in her announcement video that was posted on Twitter. “With the radical left now in charge of Washington, your governor is your last line of defense. In fact, your governor must be on the front lines, ”she said. “Today I announce my candidacy for governor of Arkansas.”

New York Times Podcasts

Ezra Klein, founder of Vox.com and newly hired columnist for the New York Times Opinion, recently recorded the first episode of his podcast for us. In it he spoke to Dr. Vivek Murthy, Biden’s candidate for General Surgeon, a position he previously held from 2014 to 2017.

They talked about the challenges the coronavirus pandemic continues to bring, the politicization of science and how the country can overcome the crisis.

“There are times, you know, when we’re 50 states and there are times when we’re one nation,” Murthy said at one point. “This is a time when we need to be one nation. And if we don’t, we will not reverse this pandemic and we will keep losing more people to this terrible virus. “

Listen to the episode here. You can listen to and subscribe to “The Ezra Klein Show” on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher (How to Listen).

On Politics is also available as a newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox.

Is there anything you think we are missing? Do you want to see more? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

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Business

Is Dubai’s celebration over? File Covid instances spark fears of recent lockdown

Is Dubai’s party over? Record Covid cases spark fears of new lockdown

Fireworks emanated from the Burj Khalifah tower in Dubai during the New Year’s Eve celebration on December 31, 2020, which attracted thousands of tourists and saw relaxed restrictions on social gatherings, allowing up to 30 people per household to gather. AFP via Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – On the surface, Dubai’s party scene feels more alive than ever – bustling restaurants and bars, beaches and hotel pools inhabited by laid-back residents and tourists enjoying the winter sun.

However, daily record breaking Covid-19 infections in the Middle East’s commercial and vacation hub have made the chatter of a possible new lockdown inevitable.

“It’s getting really bad. How long did you think you could get away with it?” Farah S., a Dubai attorney, told CNBC.

According to the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Health, the new cases recorded on Monday hit a daily high in the country of 3,591. When the country imposed its strictest lockdown in March and April, which left orders for home and closed borders completely, daily cases were less than a tenth that number.

Just last week the 3.3 million desert emirate – whose economy depends heavily on tourism and hospitality – began making changes that believe the government’s message that everything is under control.

On January 21, the authorities ordered all hospitals in Dubai to suspend unnecessary operations for a month. Around the same time, a policy was passed suspending all “entertainment” activities in restaurants and bars. The limit for weddings, social events and private parties has been reduced from 30 to 10 people. As of January 27, restaurants and cafés will require more space between the tables and fewer people per table.

Customers and equipment in gyms now need to be 3 meters apart, as opposed to the previous 2 meters, although this 2 meter requirement has often not been applied very sensibly.

Dubai fired the head of its health department on Sunday and replaced Humaid al-Qutami, who had held the office since 2018, with a new representative. The authorities did not provide a reason for the replacement and did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Some Dubai residents have claimed that hospitals are running out of intensive care beds, although this has not been confirmed as hospitals and health officials failed to respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Over the weekend, the UAE Ministry of Health posted a post on its Instagram story entitled “URGENT EMPLOYMENT” offering fixed-term contracts for intensive care nurses in Dubai, as well as Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah. This came just days after the order to cease non-essential operations.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, 281,546 cases with 798 deaths have been confirmed in the United Arab Emirates so far. The death rate of 0.3% is well below the global average.

A safe haven for 2020

After the Emirate of Dubai, which, in contrast to the more conservative capital Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, pursued a strategy of openness, kept its cases well below 2,000 per day for the entire year 2020, it turned out to be a pandemic success story.

It was certified as a “Safe Travel” destination by the World Tourism Council last summer and attracted celebrities and influencers. There has been a surge in occupancy at hotels and theme parks, and tourists from all over the world flocked to Dubai for a sense of missing normalcy. The wearing of masks continued to be ubiquitous and testing is widespread.

It has only been in the past two months that the city has hosted golf and polo tournaments, shopping and film festivals, and concerts to promote its image as safe and welcoming ahead of the long-awaited 2020 World’s Fair, postponed to October 2021 due to the pandemic.

However, the new and highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus, first identified in the UK, is believed to have sparked the recent surge in cases as thousands of UK tourists came in over the holidays to avoid the UK’s tough lockdown. Since December 30th, the daily numbers have more than tripled within a month.

Women sunbathers sit on a beach in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on July 24, 2020, while the Burj al-Arab Hotel can be seen behind it. After a painful four-month hiatus in tourism that ended in early July, Dubai is paying off as a safe travel destination with the resources to ward off coronaviruses.

KARIM SAHIB | AFP via Getty Images

Andy Pearson, a British engineer living in Dubai, blames large numbers of tourists whom he believes do not meet local safety requirements.

“The police should do more checks on party areas to make sure people are obeying the rules,” he said. “Tourists don’t care because they can just go home – they ruin it for the rest of us.”

The Dubai Media Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether a lockdown is imminent or what other changes will be made to counter the rise in cases.

Countries are putting barriers to cases in the UAE and testing concerns

Another red flag came last Thursday when Denmark announced a five-day suspension of flights from the UAE on suspicion that the Covid tests carried out on travelers before they departed Dubai were not reliable.

“We cannot ignore such a suspicion,” said the Danish transport minister, adding that at least one citizen had returned from Dubai with the variant recently discovered in South Africa, among several others whom he described as positive for Covid.

The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Health pushed back the announcement, claiming that all accredited testing centers in the United Arab Emirates operate to international standards and are regularly checked. According to the UAE authorities, talks are ongoing between the two countries.

Earlier this month, the UK and Israel introduced quarantine requirements for travelers from the UAE. The United Arab Emirates had previously been on the UK Safe Travel Corridor, which negated the need for quarantine times for arrivals.

The Covid-19 case numbers relate to the entire country and do not indicate where the infections are concentrated. But while Dubai welcomes tourists – some require negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results before boarding and others receive tests on arrival – Abu Dhabi still requires that anyone flying into the emirate be quarantined for ten days on arrival is provided. Participants from Dubai to Abu Dhabi are also required to provide a number of negative PCR test results.

Nationwide vaccination boost

The developments come as the UAE nationwide vaccination campaign is in full swing. This is the second fastest rollout in the world after Israel.

China’s Sinopharm vaccine is available nationwide for free to all residents aged 16 and over, while Dubai’s launch of Pfizer BioNtech vaccine, which began in late December, was announced as late on Saturday. The Dubai authorities attribute the delay to a “global shortage”.

Still, the UAE wants to achieve its goal of vaccinating half of its population by the end of March. Emergency approval was announced last week for the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, for which Phase 3 studies are still ongoing in Abu Dhabi.

Certain industries now mandate weekly PCR testing for unvaccinated employees. Some local residents believe that a pressure campaign to promote vaccination is being carried out. For many who live in Dubai, this step – and other restrictions – is welcome.

“I think they should be banned for two weeks,” said Sara El Dallal, an education advisor based in Dubai. “Restrictions have been in place since last week, and yet the numbers haven’t gone down.” She noted that state schools have been keeping their classes online since early January.

Melissa Webb, a Dubai-based yoga teacher, infected herself with the virus after returning from a family visit to the UK over Christmas. However, she tested negative upon arrival in Dubai, only to test positive three days later when attempting to enter Abu Dhabi. She told her story as a warning story.

“Of course I was happy about six months of normalcy, but since Christmas I’ve felt very nervous again,” she said.

“But I recognize the need for the economy to remain open, otherwise we won’t be able to live here much longer anyway.”

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Health

President Joe Biden targets 1.5 million Covid vaccinations a day, up from 1 million

President Joe Biden targets 1.5 million Covid vaccinations a day, up from 1 million

President Joe Biden makes remarks before signing a “Made in America” ​​executive order on January 25, 2021 in the Auditorium of the South Court at the White House in Washington, DC.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden said Monday the United States could hit 1.5 million Covid-19 vaccinations per day, surpassing its previously targeted pace of 1 million per day, which the Trump administration has already neared.

Biden has pledged to give 100 million shots of coronavirus vaccine in his first 100 days in office, which equates to a rate of 1 million shots a day.

“That is my promise that we will get 100 million vaccinations,” he said on Monday. “I think if the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbor and the fools don’t rise as the old saying goes, we can maybe bring that to 1.5 million a day instead of 1 million a day, but we have to target that of a million a day. “

Some public health professionals criticized Biden’s promise to give 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office as being too modest. By the time Biden took over the presidency last week, the US was well on its way to the necessary pace of 1 million shots a day. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US exceeded an average of 1.1 million vaccinations per day for seven days on Sunday.

And with the expected launch of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine next month, the Biden administration is now saying the pace of 1 million shots a day is more of a floor than a target. The two currently approved vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses to achieve maximum protection against the virus. The potential approval of JNJ’s one-time vaccine could significantly accelerate the mass effort.

But just last week, Biden rejected the idea that the goal of 100 million vaccinations in 100 days might be too low a threshold, claiming he was told before he took office that the target might be too high.

“I find it fascinating that yesterday the press asked, ‘Is 100 million enough?’ The week before they said, “Biden, are you crazy? You can’t make 100 million in 100 days, “said the President on Friday.” God willing, we will not just do 100 million, we will do more than that. “

Biden said Monday that the administration is working to increase the number of people who administer the shots, increase production of the cans, and create more facilities where people can schedule appointments and get their vaccinations.

“Time is of the essence,” he said. “We are trying to get at least 100 million vaccinations in 100 days and move in the next 100 days where we are way beyond that to get to the point where we can get herd immunity in a country.” of over 300 million people. “

His change of tune reflects comments made by White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served in the Trump administration, handed in this weekend. Fauci said Sunday that Biden’s goal of 100 million doses in 100 days was not a final number.

“It’s really a floor, not a ceiling,” Fauci told CBS’s Face The Nation program. “It’s going to be a challenge. I think it was a sensible goal that was set. We always want to do better than the goal you set.”

With a limited dose offer, states are still rationing life-saving recordings and setting a wide variety of approval parameters. The Trump administration, and now the White House in Biden, have encouraged both states to quickly move through the eligibility stages in an attempt to expand the population able to receive the vaccines.

Biden said Monday from a reporter when the US will get to the point where anyone who wants to get the vaccines will be able to, Biden said this spring. But he added it would be “a logistical challenge that surpasses anything we’ve ever tried in this country.”

“I am confident that by the summer we will be well on the way to achieving herd immunity,” he said.

But even when Biden voiced a more aggressive target for the vaccination campaign, he added Monday that the US “will see between 600,000 and 660,000 deaths before we start turning the corner in the right direction”.

And the president painted an even gloomier picture last week, saying, “There is nothing we can do to change the course of the pandemic over the next few months.”

– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

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Health

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar needs sports activities stars to advertise Covid vaccinations

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wants sports stars to promote Covid vaccinations

NBA legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Basketball Hall said it supports teams and players who use their platforms to promote Covid-19 vaccinations.

The former National Basketball Association star joined CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Monday and discussed vaccination. Abdul-Jabbar announced that he received his vaccination shots this month and that the league should raise awareness to slow down Covid-19 infections.

“From what I’ve seen, the vaccination is much less bad than the virus,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “So we have to vaccinate as many people as possible. And I hope that every effort in this direction will be fruitful.”

President Joe Biden is committed to delivering 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots within his first 100 days. Abdul-Jabbar mentioned the importance of the black community to get vaccinated, but acknowledged the story of the Tuskegee experiment for suspicion of vaccination among blacks.

The event dates back to 1932 in Tuskegee, Alabama, when black men were given placebos to treat syphilis. In 1972 the Associated Press reported that the federal government allowed men to go untreated for over 40 years because penicillin was found to be the treatment for the disease in 1947.

“That put a terrible strain on the problem of trust with the black community,” said Abdul-Jabbar of the experiment. “We have to overcome that, and we have to overcome this moment. The more people that can come on board with the promotion of vaccinations, the more this will definitely change and put this in a positive light.”

In a poll conducted by Pew Research in November, only 42% of blacks polled said they were planning to get a vaccination, compared with more than 60% of Americans overall.

The NBA released its latest Covid-19 report on January 20, which tested 11 new players positive. Abdul-Jabbar urged players to make public announcements about vaccinations. When asked whether athletes should have special access to vaccinations, Abdul-Jabbar said no.

“I don’t think you can get people out of line, so to speak, so that sports stars come out on top,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “But anyone with a following in our country can do a great job of getting people to understand that they need to be vaccinated ASAP. And I don’t think there is a problem with that.”

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Minnesota confirms first identified U.S. case of extra contagious Covid variant initially present in Brazil

Minnesota confirms first known U.S. case of more contagious Covid variant originally found in Brazil

The Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that it had confirmed the first known U.S. case of a contagious variant of coronavirus originally found in Brazil.

The Brazilian strain was found by the Ministry of Health’s variant monitoring program, according to a press release. The department collects 50 random samples each week for genome sequencing.

The patient with the Brazil variant is a resident of the Twin Cities metropolitan area who recently traveled to Brazil, according to state health officials. The person fell ill the first week of January and the sample was collected on January 9, the state said.

“We are grateful that our testing program helped us find this case, and we thank all Minnesotans who seek tests when they feel sick or otherwise have reason to have a test,” said Jan Malcolm, Minnesota health commissioner , in a statement. “We know that like all viruses, the virus will continue to evolve even as we work hard to defeat COVID-19.”

Previously, President Joe Biden had expanded travel restrictions to Europe, the UK and Brazil to curb the spread of Covid-19, especially as new strains of the coronavirus are identified.

Health officials are concerned that the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus. Moderna said Monday it was working on a booster shot to protect against another strain found in South Africa.

The Brazilian strain, designated P.1, was first identified in four travelers from Brazil who were tested during a routine screening in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It contains a number of additional mutations that the CDC says can affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies.

State health officials also said Monday they had found two more cases of the B.1.1.7 virus, commonly known as the British variant, through last week’s variant surveillance tests. Of the two new cases of the British variant discovered by the health department, both are residents of the Twin Cities metropolitan area and both reported recent trips to California.

“These cases illustrate why it is so important to limit travel as much as possible during a pandemic,” said epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield in a statement. “If you must travel, it is important to be on the lookout for symptoms of COVID-19, follow public health instructions to get tested before you travel, take careful protective measures and quarantine while you are traveling, and after Test trip. “

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Health

California lifts statewide Covid stay-at-home order, permitting eating places to reopen

California lifts statewide Covid stay-at-home order, allowing restaurants to reopen

A person wearing a protective mask arranges a table outside a restaurant in San Francisco, California, July 14, 2020.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

California will cancel its home stay order across the state on Monday, paving the way for restaurants and personal care services to reopen with operations changed, according to a statement from the California Department of Health.

The stay-at-home order, first announced by Governor Gavin Newsom on December 3, divided the state into five regions and was based on one area’s ICU capacity. Three of those regions – the San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area, and Southern California – were still in the works before they were lifted on Monday.

As part of the order, restaurants were only allowed to offer take-out and delivery services, and personal care businesses such as hair salons and barbershops were forced to close. Retailers were allowed to stay open with limited capacity. The state is expected to revert to its tiered county-to-county reopening system that will allow businesses to reopen based on the level of Covid-19 prevalent in their area.

Virtually every county will start at the most widespread, restrictive reopening stage, meaning many businesses, including restaurants and gyms, will only be allowed to reopen for outdoor services, according to the state’s Department of Health. Retailers can reopen their stores at a quarter of their capacity below the most widely used level.

State health officials are now predicting that ICU capacity, the percentage of beds used, will drop below 85% in each region in four weeks after running at or near maximum capacity for weeks. This will allow Newsom to hold the home stay order across California. The Sacramento region left the Order as early as Jan. 12, and the Northern California region never joined the order, the state health department said.

“California is slowly beginning to emerge from the most dangerous wave of this pandemic yet. This is the light at the end of the tunnel that we have hoped for,” said California Health and Welfare Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly in a statement.

“Seven weeks ago our hospitals and health professionals had reached their limits, but the Californians heard the urgent message to stay home if possible, and our post-December vacation recovery did not overwhelm the health system as much as we feared,” Said Ghaly.

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Pfizer sending fewer Covid vaccine vials to account for additional doses

Pfizer sending fewer Covid vaccine vials to account for extra doses

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer’s board of directors, on Monday defended the company’s move to send fewer vials of its Covid-19 vaccine and count six doses per vial instead of five. This is the best way to ensure the extra dose is used.

When the company started shipping vaccine bottles last month, pharmacists found that they could often extract an extra dose from each vial, which on paper only held five doses. That discovery meant the United States could actually receive more doses of the vaccine than the $ 200 million the Department of Defense bought under its deal with Pfizer.

“The bottom line is that this is a very scarce resource. We have to make sure that every dose is used,” Gottlieb said Monday in CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “The only way to do this is to market this as a six-dose vial and have the right equipment ready to extract that sixth dose, which is what Pfizer is actually doing.”

The New York Times reported Friday that Pfizer executives in recent weeks have successfully urged Food and Drug Administration officials to revise the wording of the vaccine’s emergency approval to officially include the sixth dose for the federal treaty.

Some pharmacists were confused by the extra doses or didn’t have the correct syringes to extract them and threw them away.

“During this pandemic that is killing many people around the world, it is important that we use all available vaccines and vaccinate as many people as possible. To keep an extra dose in each vial that could be used to vaccinate more people would be one Tragedy, “said company spokeswoman Amy Rose.

Gottlieb said Monday the move will help the US speed up the distribution of vaccine doses, adding that Pfizer can now deliver 120 million doses of the vaccine in the first quarter of 2021, up from 100 million before the labeling change.

However, the move puts pressure on U.S. pharmacists to extract six doses from each vial, which requires some special syringes called low dead space syringes. The US government, which ships kits of syringes and vaccine doses, has signed a contract with syringe manufacturers such as Becton Dickinson, the world’s largest syringe maker, to ensure supplies to local authorities.

However, Becton Dickinson is unable to significantly increase the US supply of syringes, Reuters reported earlier Monday, doubting how many vials the US can extract six doses from.

Gottlieb said the vaccines will only qualify as six-dose vials, which will also give local authorities the correct syringes to extract the final dose.

Gottlieb noted that when Pfizer applied for approval of his emergency vaccine, he knew that six doses could be taken from each vial, but revising the wording of the application would have delayed approval of the vaccine. The company therefore applied for approval with the intention of revising the wording later to reflect the six-dose vials.

He added that it took the U.S. FDA longer than regulators in other countries to make the change. Authorities in the UK, Switzerland and Israel have already revised the wording of their approvals for the Pfizer vaccine to take into account that each vial contains six doses.

Gottlieb, the former head of the FDA, clarified that the change should not be applied retrospectively, which means that all vials previously shipped will be counted as containing five doses.

But “at some point you had to set up the accommodation to properly account for the doses,” said Gottlieb.

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

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Business

What occurred when one Chinese language metropolis shut down after new Covid outbreak

What happened when one Chinese city shut down after new Covid outbreak

Volunteers in protective suits disinfect in a residential area of ​​Tonghua, China on January 24, 2021.

Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING – A small Chinese town’s rush to control coronavirus has left some residents without food and some officials without work.

The fallout shows the extreme lengths to which the local Chinese authorities will attempt to contain the coronavirus. While the number of new cases in China this year is far below those in other countries, the strict preventive measures can quickly lead to major disruptions in work and daily life.

After a spike in Covid-19 cases in mid-January, the city of Tonghua, about a 10-hour drive northeast of Beijing, announced on Wednesday that no one could leave the city. Authorities added that all of the apartment complexes were essentially locked.

The folks who stuck home and had little time to get groceries turned to smartphone-based delivery apps, but many complained online that they couldn’t get their orders, according to the posts on Weibo, China’s version from Twitter.

On Saturday, the Communist Party’s local Disciplinary and Inspection Commission fired three officials for their poor performance in monitoring the pandemic situation, state media said. Eleven other officers received severe warnings, the report said.

On Sunday, Tonghua City apologized to its 500,000 residents for the “untimely” delivery of daily necessities and general inconvenience. The city added there was a severe labor shortage but sufficient food.

More than 11,000 people left mostly angry comments in a national state media post, apologizing for Weibo. Some users described how they or neighbors were starving and not receiving their orders for three or four days.

Many user comments found that Eleme, an Alibaba-supported grocery delivery app, cannot be ordered. The company did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Nasdaq-listed Dada, a food company that saw growth spurt during the lockdown of the first coronavirus outbreak last year, said none of its two apps operate in the city of Tonghua.

Covid-19 first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Chinese authorities closed more than half the country in February 2020, and the outbreak stalled domestically within weeks. Meanwhile, the virus accelerated its spread overseas in a global pandemic.

New domestic cases have emerged in China in the past two months with cold winter weather and a sustained number of overseas visitors. Northeastern Jilin Province, where Tonghua City is located, is the third most severely affected region. In January alone, 273 new confirmed coronavirus cases were reported.

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Health

Birx says somebody was giving Trump ‘parallel knowledge’ about Covid pandemic

Birx says someone was giving Trump 'parallel data' about Covid pandemic

Deborah Birx, Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, speaks after a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC on June 26, 2020.

Joshua Roberts | Getty Images

Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump’s White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in a CBS interview published Sunday that former President Donald Trump was reviewing “parallel” coronavirus pandemic records from someone within the administration.

“I’ve seen the President show off graphics that I’ve never done,” Birx told Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ Face The Nation. “Someone inside created a parallel set of data and graphs that were shown to the President.”

Birx, who announced her resignation as President Joe Biden last week, said she did not know the identity of the person who gave other information to the president. She added that there were Covid-19 deniers within the Trump administration.

“There were people who definitely thought this was a joke,” she said. “I think the information was confusing at first. I think because we weren’t talking about the spectrum of the disease, everyone interpreted what they knew.”

According to the Johns Hopkins University, more than 25 million people have been infected and at least 417,000 people have died in the United States since the pandemic began.

Birx said she had always considered resigning from the White House’s coronavirus task force and was censored by the Trump administration, but denied ever withholding information about the virus.

“When you have a pandemic where you rely on every American to change their behavior, communication is absolutely vital,” she said. “Every time a political leader made a statement that didn’t meet public health needs, our response got derailed. That’s why I took to the streets because I wasn’t censored along the way.”

Birx also said she was increasingly concerned about the Trump administration’s pandemic strategy, particularly right before the presidential election. At the start of the pandemic, Birx had approved of the government’s response, but later frustrated Trump when she emphasized the severity of the pandemic.

“My colleagues, whom I had known for decades – decades – in that one experience because I was in the White House, decided that I had become that political person even though they had known me forever,” said Birx. “I had to ask myself every morning, ‘Is there something I think I can do to respond to this pandemic?’ And that’s what I asked myself every evening. “

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Business

Indonesia will take at the very least a yr to achieve Covid ‘herd immunity’: Minister

Indonesia will take at least a year to reach Covid 'herd immunity': Minister

Pedestrians walk past a mural depicting Indonesia’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Jakarta on August 16, 2020.

Feature China | Barcroft Media via Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Indonesia will take at least a year for a sufficient portion of its population to be immune to Covid-19, the country’s finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told CNBC, stressing that the government must continue spending to support the economy.

“We see that the pandemic is not easing and we have to remain vigilant,” Sri Mulyani told CNBC on Monday as part of the coverage of the World Economic Forum’s Davos agenda.

Indonesia launched its Covid-19 vaccination program earlier this month after approving the emergency vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech.

Sri Mulyani said conservative estimates by experts showed that it takes Indonesia about 15 months to vaccinate around 180 million people to achieve “herd immunity.” This occurs when enough people in a population develop protection against a disease so that it can no longer easily spread.

We see the pandemic is not easing and we need to remain vigilant.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati

Finance Minister, Indonesia

But President Joko Widodo wants to “speed up” this process to achieve herd immunity within 12 months – which is a “daunting task,” said Sri Mulyani, given the geographic spread of the country. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago nation with around 250 million inhabitants on thousands of islands.

Meanwhile, Philippine Finance Minister Carlos Dominguez told CNBC – in a separate interview that is also part of the coverage of the Davos Agenda – that his country could vaccinate “the majority of the population” by the end of 2021.

The Philippines are slated to receive their first batch of Covid vaccines next month, Dominguez said. He did not disclose the source of these vaccines, but an Associated Press report said the country was expecting 50,000 doses of China’s Sinovac to be shipped.

Government spending

Indonesia and the Philippines have the highest number of cumulative Covid cases in Southeast Asia, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Indonesia has reported more than 989,200 cumulative infections and over 27,800 deaths. While the Philippines recorded more than 513,600 cases and over 10,200 deaths, Hopkins data showed.

Dominguez said the Philippine government has provided funding for the country’s vaccination program, which is estimated to cost an estimated 82.5 billion Philippine pesos ($ 1.7 billion).

Similarly, Sri Mulyani said Indonesia would prioritize spending on vaccines as well as continued support for low-income households and small businesses. She added that the government had targeted a budget deficit of 5.7% of gross domestic product this year, which is below the previous year’s deficit of 6.1% of GDP.

The Indonesian finance minister said her country weathered the economic blow of the pandemic “relatively well” compared to many countries in the region and the G-20 ethnic group.

The economy is expected to shrink “the deepest” in 2020, around 2.2% before recovering to around 5% growth this year, she added.