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Authorities doesn’t understand how a lot Covid vaccine the U.S. has

Government does not know how much Covid vaccine the U.S. has

WASHINGTON – The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Sunday that the federal government has no knowledge of how much coronavirus vaccine the nation has, a complication that adds to what was already a Herculean task before the Biden administration.

“I can’t tell you how much vaccine we have, and if I can’t tell you I can’t tell governors and I can’t tell state health officials,” said CDC director dr. Rochelle Walensky told Fox News Sunday.

“If they don’t know how much vaccine to get not just this week but next week and the week after, they can’t plan. They can’t figure out how many websites to launch, they can’t figure out.” how many vaccines they need and they can’t figure out how many appointments to make for the public, “Walensky said.

Speaking at an excavation at the Trump administration, Walensky said the lack of knowledge of vaccine supplies shows “the challenges that remain”.

Continue reading: Biden Surgeon General Pick Says US Race To Adapt Against New Strains Of Covid

President Joe Biden is committed to delivering 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots within his first 100 days. The Biden government has been urged repeatedly whether this goal is ambitious enough given the severity of the pandemic.

Walensky admitted the US needs to vaccinate people faster, but said the nation is facing supply shortages. Production will increase after the first 100 days, Walensky said, and the expected launch of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also help resolve supply issues.

“We really hope that we have more vaccines and that we will increase the speed at which we can vaccinate,” said Walensky.

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said the nation is also facing distribution issues because the Trump administration, which launched the program, lacks a clear plan.

“The process of distributing the vaccine, especially outside of nursing homes and hospitals, to the entire community didn’t really exist when we got to the White House,” Klain told MSNBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

“So the process of getting this vaccine into your arms is the difficult process, we are lagging behind as a country and here we in the Biden administration are focused on getting this vaccine going,” he added .

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served in the Trump administration, 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 ‘Face The Nation. “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.”

Those 100 million injections will cover roughly 67 million people, Fauci said, some of whom received the two doses required while others received only one dose. To date, the US has given nearly 22 million doses, well below federal targets.

The need to vaccinate as many people as possible has received a new urgency as the coronavirus mutates. According to Fauci, the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new strains.

Biden’s general surgeon emphasized on Sunday that the US was in a race to adapt to the new variants.

“The virus is basically telling us that it will keep changing and we need to be prepared for it,” said Dr. Vivek Murthy during an interview with ABC News’ This Week.

“So the bottom line is we’re in a race against these variants, the virus is going to change and it’s up to us to adapt and make sure we stay ahead,” said Murthy.

When asked if the US is in a race against time before a variant of Covid emerges that will make the vaccines ineffective, Walensky said Americans need to be vaccinated when they get the opportunity and stick to harm reduction strategies hold to deny the possibility of virus circulation.

“I would say we were in a race the whole time,” said Walensky. “The more viruses out there, the more viruses replicate, the more likely we are to have mutations and variants.”

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Biden to limit journey with South Africa, U.Okay., Brazil to sluggish new Covid strains

Biden to restrict travel with South Africa, U.K., Brazil to slow new Covid strains

On January 22, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signs Executive Orders for economic relief for families and businesses affected by Covid in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC.

Nicholas Comb | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden will sign a travel ban on Monday for most non-U.S. Citizens entering the country that was recently in South Africa, where a new strain of Covid-19 was identified, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC .

Biden will also reintroduce travel restrictions on entry for non-US residents from the UK and Brazil, where new strains of Covid have emerged. The restrictions also apply to Ireland and much of Europe. Former President Donald Trump lifted the restrictions shortly before Biden took office.

Reuters reported on the travel restrictions for the first time on Sunday.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant chief director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the point of sale that the agency “is introducing this series of measures to protect Americans and also reduce the risk of these variants spreading and worsening the current pandemic.” . “

Before Biden took office, the new White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Trump’s efforts to lift international travel restrictions despite more contagious variants emerging around the world.

“We plan to step up public health measures related to international travel to further contain the spread of Covid-19,” Psaki wrote in a tweet.

Trump issued a proclamation last Monday to lift the travel restrictions his administration had put in place at the start of the pandemic for most non-US citizens living in much of Europe, the UK and Brazil as of January 26.

At that time, the US government will begin providing US air travelers, including US citizens, with the latest negative Covid-19 test results before boarding flights.

White House Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that available vaccines against new, more contagious strains of Covid-19 appear to be less effective but likely still offer enough protection to be worth buying.

The CDC also announced on Sunday that it would remove the option for airlines flying from countries that do not have Covid-19 tests to request temporary exemptions for some travelers. The agency will implement the order on Tuesday.

The virus has infected more than 25 million people and killed at least 417,000 people in the United States since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US has not yet discovered any cases of the South African variant, but several states have discovered the British variant.

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Biden surgeon common choose says U.S. racing to adapt towards new Covid strains

Biden surgeon general pick says U.S. racing to adapt against new Covid strains

Vivek Murthy, named U.S. Surgeon General by President-elect Joe Biden, speaks as Biden announces his team tasked with fighting the Covid-19 pandemic at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware on December 8, 2020.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s surgeon general said Sunday that the United States is in a race to adapt against the mutant coronavirus, which has spawned a number of potentially more infectious variants of Covid-19.

“The virus is basically telling us that it will keep changing and we need to be prepared for it,” said Dr. Vivek Murthy during an interview with ABC News’ This Week.

“We need to be number one, do much better genome monitoring so we can identify variants when they arise, and that means we need to double up on public health measures like masking and avoiding indoor gatherings,” Murthy said Biden’s candidate for the nation’s next surgeon general, he added.

He also called for an emphasis on treatment strategies as well as further investment in testing and contract tracking methods.

“So the bottom line is we’re in a race against these variants, the virus is going to change and it’s up to us to adapt and make sure we stay ahead,” said Murthy.

On Friday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the new variant, known as B.1.1.7, was linked to higher mortality rates. When asked, Murthy said the US needs more data on the UK variant before making the same decision.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s top medical advisor on Covid-19, told CBS New “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the US “has every reason to believe” that the UK government is claiming the variant is more deadly.

“We must now assume that what was predominantly floating around the UK has some increase in what is known as virulence, especially the virus’ ability to do more harm, including death,” Fauci said, adding that the US will do so I want to keep access to UK health records.

Preliminary analysis of the mutant strain, first identified in the UK, suggests that it could be the culprit for the UK’s top in some cases. Johnson previously said the new variant could also be up to 70% more transferable. The UK government has also confirmed that another infectious variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa has emerged in the UK.

Continue reading: 5 things to know about the spread of the new strain of Covid in the UK

Last month, Colorado announced the first case of the new and potentially more infectious strain, Covid-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned last week that the British variant, already circulating in at least 10 states, could become the dominant variant in the US by March.

Fauci warned Sunday that the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new strains of the coronavirus identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.

“We’re going to look at this and monitor it very, very carefully as these things move on,” said Fauci, adding that the Biden government was already planning to modify the vaccines.

“We don’t have to do this now, but the best way to prevent these mutants from developing further is to vaccinate as many people as possible with the vaccines currently available,” he said.

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White Home says states cannot buy Covid vaccine instantly

White House says states can't purchase Covid vaccine directly

Ron Klain, former White House Ebola Response Coordinator, speaks during a hearing for the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security in Washington, DC, the United States, on Tuesday, March 10, 2020.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday that US states are unable to purchase Covid-19 vaccines directly from manufacturers, as some are trying to do under emergency use approval issued by the Food and Drug Administration to have.

“This vaccine is subject to emergency approval for legal reasons,” Klain told NBC’s Meet the Press when asked about the inquiries. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

The comments come after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday asked Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla to allow the state to buy vaccines directly from the company, citing the scarcity of supplies.

Pfizer told Cuomo that it would not be able to do so under the terms of his December emergency clearance.

The company said it was open to the idea, but “before we could sell directly to state governments, HHS would need to approve this proposal based on the EUA granted to Pfizer by the FDA.”

The Department of Health and Human Services – still under Republican leadership at the time – accused Democrat Cuomo of trying “to get to the top of the line at the expense of other jurisdictions”.

Klain said he believed governors were “understandably frustrated” with the slow pace of vaccinations to date.

The number of vaccines administered falls far short of projections made under President Donald Trump, although the pace has picked up in recent weeks. President Joe Biden has pledged the US will administer 100 million doses of vaccine in his first 100 days in office.

“We’re going to ramp up production. We’re going to ramp up sales. We’re going to work closely with the governors. We’re going to get this vaccine out to the American people,” Klain said.

The Biden government has urged the federal government to strengthen its role in the manufacture and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

TJ Ducklo, a White House spokesman, previously opposed state efforts to buy vaccines direct, saying, “We need to take a national approach to vaccination and make sure states don’t compete against each other as they do with PPE, ventilators and others. ” Testing. “

Ducklo didn’t immediately respond to an email on Sunday. The Department of Health and Human Services also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before Biden took office, other states had asked Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services to allow them to buy vaccines directly from the manufacturer.

The governors of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin – all Democrats – sent a letter on Jan. 15 accusing the Trump administration of botching the introduction of the first vaccine.

“If you cannot or do not want to give us this shipment, we urge you to give us permission to buy vaccines directly so we can distribute them,” wrote the governors.

At least one of those states appears to have been tracking the plan since Biden was inaugurated on Wednesday.

Bobby Leddy, a spokesperson for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, said in a statement to CBS: “We are confident that President Joe Biden will have a clear national strategy, based on data and science, to help our nation overcome this To help health crisis. ” “”

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Voters extra optimistic about Covid, blame feds for vaccine rollout: NBC ballot

Voters more optimistic about Covid, blame feds for vaccine rollout: NBC poll

USC School of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Richard Dang (R) gives Ashley Van Dyke a Covid-19 vaccine as a mass vaccination of health care workers is happening on January 15, 2021 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California.

Irfan Khan | AFP | Getty Images

With President Joe Biden making tackling the Covid-19 crisis his top priority, American voters are a little more optimistic about the pandemic than they were last fall, according to a new poll by NBC News.

Still, many respondents are dissatisfied with the sluggish introduction of the vaccine in the country, and a majority blame the federal government, according to the survey.

Poll results released Thursday showed that 38% of registered voters believe the worst of the health crisis is behind the country, while 44% believe the worst is yet to come. In a poll conducted just before the November elections, those numbers were 25% and 55%, respectively.

In his inaugural address on Wednesday, Biden warned of a difficult battle against the impending coronavirus.

“We are entering what is possibly the toughest and deadliest phase of the virus,” he said.

The country has at least 193,600 new coronavirus cases and at least 3,030 Covid deaths every day, based on a 7-day average calculated by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University. New, more infectious strains of the virus have emerged in the United States. At least 406,000 Americans have died from the virus since the pandemic started early last year.

The U.S. has failed to meet its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020. Under the administration of former President Donald Trump, just over 14.2 million people had received one or more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday morning, according to the CDC.

While respondents to the NBC survey expressed a slight increase in optimism about the pandemic, more than half of respondents were previously dissatisfied with the introduction of vaccines: 30% said vaccine administration went poorly, while 25% said it was bad that they “didn’t” run too well. “

Another 11% said it was handled “very” well, and 31% said it went “fairly” well.

Among those who said the rollout was below average, 64% primarily blamed the federal government, while 21% blamed the state governments. Another 11% blamed both of them the same.

The answers diverged across the party lines. 79% of Democratic voters who criticized the introduction of the vaccine blamed the federal government. Among Republicans who were dissatisfied with the distribution, 52% blamed states.

The poll polled 1,000 registered voters nationwide from January 10-13. The error rate is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Biden’s plan

Biden plans to accelerate vaccine rollout by increasing funding for local and state officials, creating more vaccination sites, and launching a national awareness campaign, according to his Covid Response Plan released Thursday. Previously, Biden said his government will try to give 100 million vaccine shots in the first 100 days.

His incoming health officials have expressed dismay at the state of the federal vaccine distribution plan.

“What we inherit from the Trump administration is so much worse than we could have imagined,” Jeff Zients, Biden’s Covid Response coordinator, told reporters. “We have to vaccinate as much of the US population as possible to get out of this pandemic, but we don’t have the infrastructure.”

On his first day in office, Biden restored the national security team in charge of global health, safety and biological defense, urged authorities to extend statewide moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures, and urged the Department of Education to put a break on student loan payments and interest to extend.

The president has also issued a mask mandate for anyone visiting a federal building or state, or using certain public transportation. Biden launched a 100-Day Masking Challenge that asked Americans to wear face coverings in public for the next 100 days.

Adopting a new Covid aid package will be a challenge for the new Congress and the White House. Democrats have a small majority in both houses of Congress, and Republicans are skeptical about spending increases.

“We have to put politics aside and finally face this pandemic as a nation,” Biden said on Wednesday.

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United Airways CEO needs to make Covid vaccines necessary for workers

United Airlines CEO wants to make Covid vaccines mandatory for employees

A health care professional wears personal protective equipment (PPE) during a United Airlines Covid-19 test pilot program at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, the United States, on Monday, November 16, 2020.

Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images

United Airlines CEO wants Covid-19 vaccines to be mandatory for employees and encourages other companies to do the same.

This attitude is different from other airlines and companies in other sectors such as retail and auto manufacturing.

“The worst thing I think I’ll ever do in my career are the letters I wrote to the surviving family members of employees we lost to the coronavirus,” CEO Scott Kirby said Thursday in an employee’s town hall, a transcript of which has been verified by CNBC. “Because I have confidence in the safety of the vaccine – and I recognize this is controversial – I think it is right for United Airlines and other companies to require the vaccines and make them mandatory.”

United had more than 60,000 active U.S. employees as of late 2020 and has sent recall notifications to around 17,000 other workers whose jobs were cut last year.

Kirby acknowledged the logistical challenges of vaccinating staff.

Airline employees are considered important workers and will likely receive the vaccine in front of many people. But the rollout so far has been slow and chaotic as the nation ran after the goals.

Airline executives have said widespread vaccination will help revive demand for air travel as airlines grapple with losses running into billions.

“I don’t think United can get away with it and realistically be the only company that needs vaccines and makes them mandatory,” he said. “We need some others. We need some others to show leadership. Especially in the healthcare industry.”

The staff note said it is working with government officials and health care providers to set up vaccine distribution centers at some of its major hubs.

Some employees have been reluctant to take vaccines.

“It’s certainly a touchy subject,” said Michael Klemm, president of the International Association of Engineers and Aerospace Workers, District 141, who represents United’s fleet and passenger services staff, in an email. “We have received some frustrations from members who do not want to take the vaccine and concerns from members who do not want to work with someone who is not taking it.”

Klemm said the union members could file a complaint about disciplinary measures resulting from their refusal to be vaccinated. If they refuse to be vaccinated because of a religious belief or disability, they can file complaints with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

United Flight Attendants’ union, the Association of Flight Attendants, said its focus is on ensuring vaccine access for crew members.

“Right now, flight attendants are at different levels of access in each state,” AFA spokeswoman Taylor Garland said in a statement. “We need a federal approach that prioritizes flight attendants as the essential workforce that facilitates international trade.”

Other airlines have not announced plans to prescribe vaccines.

Southwest Airlines said last week that it “currently” does not require employees to receive Covid-19 vaccines, but has strongly encouraged employees to do so.

American Airlines is taking a similar approach, and announced to staff last week, “We do not plan to require our team members to receive the vaccine unless vaccinations are ultimately required to travel to specific destinations.”

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines said it is “working actively with all states to understand how Delta employees are prioritized in the initial distribution of vaccines.”

The Atlanta-based airline has encouraged employees to get vaccinated. On Wednesday, the company told flight attendants that their pay would be protected if they responded to a vaccine that prevented them from working and that they would receive an additional six hours of pay after receiving the second dose of the vaccine as seen by CNBC.

United in a staff note this week urged employees to get vaccinated as soon as possible and not wait for guidance from the airline.

Some companies are trying to convince workers to get the vaccine by offering additional wages. Yogurt and food company Chobani said it will give employees in its manufacturing facilities and offices up to six hours of paid time to get the two vaccinations.

So far, some retailers like Aldi, Lidl and Dollar General have announced similar plans to offer additional payment. Aldi said it would also like to open on-site vaccination clinics in its warehouses and offices to make it easier for workers to get the shots and remove the barriers to childcare or finding transportation.

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Proof new UK Covid pressure could also be extra lethal

Evidence new UK Covid strain may be more deadly

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference on Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Downing Street on January 15, 2021 in London, England.

Dominic Lipinski | Getty Images

LONDON – There is “some evidence” that a new variant of Covid, first identified in the UK, could be more deadly than the original variety, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday.

“We were informed today that not only is there a faster spread, but there is also evidence that the new variant – the variant first discovered in London and the south east (of England) – may be associated with a higher one Mortality rate, “Johnson told a press conference.

He added that all the evidence suggests that the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford University, both of which are currently in use in the UK, will remain effective against both the old and new variants of the virus.

The evidence is still in a preliminary stage and is being assessed by the Advisory Group on New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats, which is advising the UK Government.

The variant known as B.1.1.7 has an unusually high number of mutations and was already associated with more efficient and faster transmission.

Scientists first discovered this mutation in September. It has since been found in at least 44 countries, including the US, which has reported its presence in 12 states.

Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the US variant’s modeled trajectory “is growing rapidly in early 2021 and will become the predominant variant in March”.

Patrick Vallance, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, said alongside Johnson on Friday that there were early signs that the risk for those with the new variant was increased compared to the old virus.

“If you were to … take a man in his sixties, the average risk is that for every 1,000 people infected, about 10 would die from the virus. With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, about 13 or 14 would be expected People are dying, “said Vallance.

He described the data as not yet strong and emphasized more concern about other variants of Covid in Brazil and South Africa.

– CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this article.

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Pfizer to provide as much as 40 million Covid vaccine doses to Covax international program

Pfizer to supply up to 40 million Covid vaccine doses to Covax global program

A nurse prepares the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on January 10, 2021 at a vaccination center in Sarcelles near Paris.

ALAIN JOCARD | AFP | Getty Images

Pfizer will deliver up to 40 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to a global alliance that aims to provide coronavirus vaccines to poor nations, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The agreement will enable Covax – together with the WHO – to deliver vaccine doses to the participating countries from February, said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press conference. Tedros added that until an emergency is approved, the program expects 150 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to be available for distribution in the first quarter of this year.

The Covax program aims to provide 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to participating countries, which include low- to middle-income countries, by the end of this year. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine requires two vaccinations spaced weeks apart, suggesting the deal would only cover 20 million people.

Tedros said the deal would allow other countries with supplies of Pfizer’s vaccine to donate them to the program. The WHO chief criticized wealthy nations for signing supply agreements with drug manufacturers for their starting doses of Covid-19 vaccines to stockpile supplies from poorer nations.

“This is not only important for COVAX, it is also an important step forward for equitable access to vaccines and an essential part of the global effort to fight this pandemic. We will only be safe everywhere if we are safe everywhere,” so Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said in a statement.

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said during the press conference that the company will make the vaccine doses available to Covax and poorer countries for a fee. Pfizer was the first company to receive a global list of emergency uses for its vaccine from the WHO, allowing other countries to expedite their regulatory approval processes to begin administering the vaccine.

Bourla said the company will help ship the cans, which require ultra-cold storage and special handling, to low-income countries. UNICEF, which is helping with the dispensing of the cans, previously warned that some of the world’s poorest countries could face the challenge of storing and managing the shots upon arrival.

The program’s contract with Pfizer increases supply agreements to a total of just over 2 billion doses, but negotiations for an additional supply continue. The goal, according to Covax, is to immunize healthcare and other frontline workers as well as some high-risk individuals from the first quarter of this year.

The agreement follows the United States’ decision to remain a member of WHO under President Joe Biden. The new administration will also join the Covax program, a move the Trump administration opposed last year.

“I couldn’t escape the temptation to say that I’m very happy that this press conference is taking place on the day the United States rejoins the WHO organization. I think it’s a symbolic, great day for us,” Pfizer boss Bourla said at the meeting.

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Pfizer says its Covid vaccine trial for youths ages 12 to 15 is totally enrolled

Pfizer says its Covid vaccine trial for kids ages 12 to 15 is fully enrolled

Walgreens pharmacist Jessica Sahni will hold the vaccine against Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the New Jewish Home in New York on December 21, 2020.

Yuki Iwamura | Reuters

Pfizer said it had fully enrolled its Covid-19 vaccine study in children ages 12-15, an important step before the vaccine could be used in that age group.

The study, an extension of the study used to support the company’s emergency approval for the vaccine in people aged 16 and over, enrolled 2,259 children between the ages of 12 and 15, Pfizer told CNBC on Friday. The entry on a government clinical trial website has been updated to determine that subjects are no longer being recruited.

The vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech was approved in December for people aged 16 and over. Studies in younger age groups are needed to ensure the correct dose as well as safety and effectiveness in these different groups, said Dr. Evan Anderson, a pediatrician at Emory University School of Medicine.

“I am very uncomfortable sending my children back to school where, despite the school’s best efforts, there is a real risk of getting Covid-19,” Anderson told CNBC in October.

While children are less affected by Covid-19 than adults, they still catch the virus and get sick. Some even died. According to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, more than 2.5 million cases of Covid-19 in children were reported as of Jan. 14, about 13% of all cases.

“Children can still get sick and die from Covid-19,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an infectious disease doctor at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital. “In the past year, as many children died of Covid-19 as of influenza. And we recommend an influenza vaccine for children.”

Offit also pointed out that children can suffer from a disease related to Covid-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, “which can be debilitating”.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Jan. 8, there were 1,659 cases of the syndrome in children named MIS-C and 26 related deaths. There were a total of 78 deaths from Covid-19 in children under 4 years old and 178 in children between 5 and 17 years old, according to CDC data, although those numbers do not explain all deaths from the United States

Children compete for class at PS 361 on the first day of returning to class during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States, on December 7, 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Pfizer declined to say when it expected results from the study, which would depend on the observed infection rate, to compare the rates in the placebo group with those who received the vaccine. With infection rates higher in the US since the fall – the 7-day average of daily cases now stands at 187,500, according to a CNBC analysis of the Johns Hopkins University data – vaccine effectiveness studies have shown their ads are getting faster.

However, enrollment for adolescent studies has been slower than hoped, at least for Moderna’s study in children ages 12-17, Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine effort, said at their last meeting on Dec. January.

By then, around 800 children had been included in the study for over a month, of which around 3,000 were needed. Moderna’s vaccine was approved for people aged 18 and over in December, weeks after its teenage study began. Pfizer lowered the age of his trial to 12 years in October.

“While enrollment was lower during the holiday season, we expect an increase in the new year as planned,” said Moderna spokeswoman Colleen Hussey on Friday. “We are on track to provide updated data by mid-2021.”

AstraZeneca, whose vaccine developed by Oxford University is in late-stage trials in the US and approved in the UK, told CNBC Friday that it plans to continue UK trials in a new protocol for children ages 5-18 from the coming months. “”

Johnson & Johnson, whose results are expected in the third phase in adults, said it was in talks with regulators about including pediatric populations in its development plan. The same technology used for the Covid-19 vaccine was found to have been used in vaccines given to more than 200,000 people, including people over 65, infants, children, HIV-positive adults, and pregnant women .

Typically, vaccine trials are conducted in younger age groups after they have been shown to be safe and effective in older groups. The manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines have indicated that they will follow this plan here as well.

Moderna’s chief executive Stephane Bancel said earlier this month the company is unlikely to have data on children ages 11 and younger who would include a lower dose before next year. He said he expected data for children 12 years and older could be available before September.

U.S. public health officials such as White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, said they hope that by fall 75% to 80% of the US population could be vaccinated so life can return to some form of normal.

About 78% of the US population, or 255 million people, are over 18 years old, according to a CNBC analysis of the census data. Another 25 million people are between 12 and 17 years old.

Fauci did not immediately respond to a query about the need to include children in vaccinations in order to meet his goal of 75% to 80% coverage.

“It is important that all children are vaccinated, and manufacturers cannot conduct these trials fast enough,” Angela Rasmussen, virologist and subsidiary at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Safety, told CNBC on Friday. “The more people of all ages are vaccinated, the better.”

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New York is operating 1,000 genome checks every week to search for Covid variants

New York is running 1,000 genome tests a week to look for Covid variants

Scientists work in a laboratory testing COVID-19 samples at the New York City Health Department during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in New York on April 23, 2020.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

New York State runs about 1,000 genome tests every week to look for new, contagious variants of Covid, said state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, at a news conference on Friday.

“The new varieties are terrifying: the British variety, the Brazilian variety, now the South African variety,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo at the briefing. “The British variety is here.”

Zucker said the state has done about 6,000 genome tests so far and only found the strain that came from the UK. New York officials have so far identified 25 of these cases, including two new cases in Westchester County and one new case in Kings County. Said Cuomo. According to Zucker, there were no deaths in these cases.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on Friday that there was “some evidence” that the mutated strain could also be more deadly than the original, which hailed from Wuhan, China.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously said there was no evidence that any of the new variants were more deadly or causing more serious illness.

When asked about the potential for higher mortality associated with the British tribe, Zucker said he was in contact with the British science advisor and the evidence is still preliminary.

“The fact that it’s more communicable means there will be more cases. If there are more cases, there will be more hospitalizations, and obviously if there are more hospitalizations there is an obvious risk of more deaths,” Zucker said.

At the briefing, Cuomo said he hoped that President Joe Biden’s new administration would boost vaccine production and enable increased vaccine distribution. New York had given more than 975,000 people at least one dose of the vaccine as of Thursday, according to the state vaccine tracker.

“The British tribe is spreading. We still only have a vaccination rate of 60% to 70% of our hospital workers. This is a problem,” said Cuomo.