Tag: Covid

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Biden says nothing can change the trajectory of the Covid pandemic over the following a number of months

Biden says nothing can change the trajectory of the Covid pandemic over the next several months

United States President Joe Biden speaks about his administration’s plans to respond to the economic crisis during a Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Response in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on January 22, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

President Joe Biden painted a dire picture of the coronavirus outbreak in the nation in his early days in office, warning that it will be months before the course of the pandemic changes and that the death toll is expected to be over the next several weeks will increase dramatically.

“A lot of Americans hurt. The virus is on the rise. We have 400,000 deaths that are expected to reach well over 600,000,” Biden said Friday, before signing two executive orders that reduce hunger and amid workers’ rights the pandemic should strengthen.

The US exceeded 400,000 total Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, a quarter of them in the past 36 days. This is based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. On Biden’s first full day as president on Thursday, he told reporters after meeting his Covid-19 advisors, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation is likely to top 500,000 Covid-19 deaths in February.

Biden warned Friday that the outbreak continues: “There is nothing we can do to change the course of the pandemic over the next few months.” The President has repeatedly warned that the situation is likely to get worse before it improves.

Although it wasn’t immediately made clear which projections Biden was referring to, a key projection by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that the US could reach 600,000 Covid-19 deaths by March if states relaxed social distancing mandates. However, the model’s current projections show that Covid-19 deaths will be just over 560,000 Covid-19 deaths by the end of April.

A spokesman for the Biden administration was not immediately available to comment on the president’s projections.

The United States has reported a drop in Covid-19 cases in the past few days, a glimmer of hope after a surge since the fall and during the winter holiday season. According to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, the US reports an average of around 187,593 new Covid-19 cases every day, a 22% decrease from the previous week.

However, the nation is still “in a very grave situation,” Fauci said during his first press briefing at the White House under the new administration on Thursday, noting the country’s high death toll and overstretched hospital capacity.

Fauci said the daily number of cases appears to be plateauing and is turning around based on the weekly average. It’s possible the decline is still due to reduced reporting after the holidays, he added.

“When we see that we think it’s real,” said Fauci.

Biden’s warnings come as the country races to get 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots administered within the first 100 days of its administration. The introduction of the vaccine in the nation has been slow to start, despite health experts having said Biden’s goal of 100 million shots is feasible.

The rate of vaccinations has increased over the past week. The US administered 1.6 million Covid-19 vaccines between Thursday and Friday. This is based on recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 100 million shots in 100 days would be a viable target if this daily count continued.

Biden has dismissed the idea that the target might be too low a threshold, claiming that he was told before he took office that the target might be too high. Biden’s spokesman did not respond to CNBC’s question regarding the president’s comments.

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

– CNBC’s Jacob Pramuk and Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

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Health

CDC modifications Covid vaccine steerage to OK mixing Pfizer and Moderna pictures

CDC changes Covid vaccine guidance to OK mixing Pfizer and Moderna shots

Syringe containers for the Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer BioNtech and Moderna Inc. in Tucson, Arizona, USA, on Friday, January 15, 2021.

Cherry Orr | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have tacitly changed their guidelines for Covid-19 vaccine shots, stating that it is now okay to mix Pfizer and Moderna shots in “exceptional situations” and that it is in Okay, wait up to six weeks to get the second shot. Two-dose immunization from both companies.

While Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, both of which use messenger RNA technology, were approved 21 and 28 days apart, the agency now says that under new guidelines, you can get both shots as long as they’re at least apart 28 days administered will be published on its website Thursday.

Although “every effort” should be made to ensure that a patient receives the same vaccine, in rare situations “any available mRNA COVID-19 vaccine can be administered with a minimum of 28 days between doses” – if supply Is limited or the patient does not know what vaccine they originally received, the CDC says in new guidelines.

The CDC says the two products are not interchangeable, admitting that they hadn’t yet investigated whether their new recommendations would alter the safety or effectiveness of either vaccine.

The agency said health care providers should give patients a vaccination card detailing when they received their first shot and what type of shot it was to ensure patients know which shot to receive the second time. The agency also recommends providers to record the patient’s vaccination information on their medical records and on the government vaccination information system.

Both companies need two doses to achieve maximum protection against the coronavirus. While both shots should be administered according to the guidelines originally recommended, the CDC said the second dose of both companies’ vaccine could be delayed for up to six weeks if necessary.

The updated guidelines come as some cities and counties across the country cancel vaccination appointments because they don’t have as many doses as they originally expected.

Wayne County, Michigan, for example, said last week it would be a priority to make sure people who got their first shot get their second shot on time. But the county said it had to cancel nearly 1,400 appointments for people to get their first shot.

“The intent is not to suggest people do something else, but rather to give clinicians flexibility in exceptional circumstances,” said Jason McDonald, a CDC spokesman, in an email to CNBC.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, was asked on Friday about the interval at which the two shots should be administered.

“The data we have is of a two-dose vaccine on the recommended schedule of 21 or 28 days,” she said at a virtual event hosted by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and National Public Radio . “At this point in time, we at CDC agree with what the FDA says, and the FDA has made it very clear that we should be using the approved regimen.”

“It’s firmly ingrained in science and the evidence available, and doing anything else would not follow science and possibly not allow us to really get the full potential of these vaccines,” she added. “For now, from the CDC’s point of view, we think it has to be two doses on the recommended schedule.”

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Health

I took ‘no pleasure’ in contradicting Trump on Covid

I took 'no pleasure' in contradicting Trump on Covid

White House Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said he had “had no pleasure” in contradicting former President Donald Trump on the Covid-19 pandemic and felt more liberated to be able to discuss science without facing the new administration.

“The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what evidence, what the science is and what it is – let the science do the talking. It’s a liberating feeling,” Fauci said on Thursday at his first press conference in the White House for months.

Fauci, now advising President Joe Biden, said he took no pleasure in contradicting Trump, who often made false claims about the severity of the pandemic as well as drugs designed to fight it.

“It was very clear that there were things that were being said, be it about things like hydroxychloroquine and other things that were really [were] It’s uncomfortable because they’re not based on scientific facts, “said Fauci.” I can tell you, I take absolutely no pleasure in contradicting the president, so it really was something you didn’t think you could actually say something and it wouldn’t be affected. “

He said it was “a liberating feeling” to talk about science and “that’s it”.

During the pandemic, Trump repeatedly criticized the government’s top coronavirus advisor, and even suggested firing him. Meanwhile, Fauci has questioned a number of Trump’s comments, including his repeated claims that the US fight against the virus “is turning around” when tens of thousands of people were actually infected every day.

Fauci didn’t attack his former boss as subtly when asked how the pandemic might have developed differently if a team like Biden’s had been deployed from the start. “One of the things we’re going to do is be completely transparent, open and honest,” said Fauci. “When something goes wrong, don’t point your fingers, but correct it and make everything we do based on science and evidence.”

Fauci said he discussed these exact priorities with Biden about 15 minutes before entering the meeting room.

In contrast, Trump had consistently downplayed the threat posed by the virus. He regularly denied any criticism of his administration’s approach to the pandemic, claiming that the US, which has the highest Covid death toll of any country in the world, responded to the virus better than almost any other nation. While Fauci and Trump’s coronavirus task force held daily briefings at the start of the outbreak, those regular updates were eventually dropped after Trump asked scientists if they could inject disinfectant or light into the body to kill the virus.

Thursday’s press conference came after Fauci told the World Health Organization earlier in the day that the U.S. would remain a member of the international agency under Biden. In May, Trump announced that the US would leave the WHO, but the process shouldn’t be completed until July.

Fauci said the Biden administration plans to work with the other 193 member states to “strengthen and reform” the United Nations health agency.

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Business

Why speedy Covid assessments are inflicting a stir within the UK

Why rapid Covid tests are causing a stir in the UK

Diane Schofield takes a side flow test when she arrives at the Aspen Hill Village nursing home in Hunslet, Leeds.

Danny Lawson – PA Pictures | PA pictures | Getty Images

LONDON – A battle has broken out in the UK over the use of rapid coronavirus tests – formally known as “lateral flow tests”.

There is a heated debate going on about how exactly they detect Covid-19 cases and whether they should be introduced as a cheaper and faster way to do mass testing.

The tests can be done by yourself and detect the current Covid-19 infection, with the results usually being available within 30 minutes. They involve taking a swab from both nostrils, but not the throat, and can be used without laboratory equipment.

The UK government, which wants lateral flow testing to be introduced in more facilities like schools, says the tests are accurate, reliable, and allow regular testing of people who may have the virus but are asymptomatic.

However, the tests have divided the scientific community. Critics say the tests are less accurate than PCR tests, which are still generally considered the “gold standard” for sensitivity and accuracy (although results typically take longer than 24 hours) and could produce multiple false negative results to lead.

The government is keen to expand the testing regime (in a strategy known as “Operation Moonshot”) as this could allow a faster exit from a third national lockdown that is further damaging the UK economy after a year of disruption.

Most infectious Covid cases

A preprint of a government-funded study by Oxford University was released on Thursday that concluded that “lateral flow devices could detect most infectious Covid-19 cases and provide safer relaxation of the current lockdown”.

The study also confirmed that the more viruses found in the nose and throat (known as viral load), the more contagious the individual is: “This is the first time this has been confirmed in a large-scale study and explains part of it why some pass on Covid-19, others don’t, “the study says.

Therefore, people with higher viral loads are more likely to pass the infection on to others, making those infected people the most important to identify so that they can be isolated to reduce further transmission.

The wider use of lateral flow tests could help ingest more of these highly infectious people who are more likely to transmit the virus, the study said.

“The modeling suggests that lateral flow devices would identify people who are responsible for 84% of transmissions by using the least sensitive of four tested (lateral flow) kits and 91% the most sensitive,” says it in the study, although they realized that such tests are less accurate than PCR tests.

“Covid-19 tests that are less sensitive than standard PCR but are easier to make widely available, such as lateral flow tests, could be a good solution to ensure that highly infectious people know that they have to isolate faster and in a more isolated manner could allow the lockdown restrictions to be relaxed.

“They would also allow more people to be tested, which leads to immediate results, including those who have no symptoms and people at an increased risk of testing positive, for example because of their work or because they have had contact.”

Tim Peto, Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and lead author on the study, said, “We know that lateral flow tests are not perfect, but that doesn’t prevent them from playing an important role in detecting large numbers of blood cells . ” Cases of infection fast enough to prevent further spread. “

The UK government had planned to run lateral flow tests in schools to run daily coronavirus tests on students ages 11-18 to reduce the number of children and young adults staying at home and self-isolating must when they come into contact with a positive case.

However, the plan was put on hold as the majority of schools took classes online and a third lockdown was in place due to a rapid surge in infections.

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Business

U.S. to stay a WHO member and be part of Covid vaccine plan

U.S. to remain a WHO member and join Covid vaccine plan

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

Patrick Semansky | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The US will remain a member of the World Health Organization under President Joe Biden, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday and intends to join a global alliance that aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to low-income countries.

One day after Biden took office, US Chief Medical Officer Fauci spoke to the WHO Executive Board via videoconference from Washington: “President Biden will later today issue a directive stating the United States’ intention to join COVAX and support ACT. ” – Accelerators to advance multilateral efforts for Covid-19 vaccine distribution, therapeutic and diagnostic distribution, equitable access, and research and development. “

The US will remain a member of WHO, the United Nations health agency, and “meet its financial commitments,” said Fauci. He added that Biden’s government plans to work with the other 193 member states to help reform the group.

“This is a good day for WHO and a good day for global health,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“We’re all happy that the United States is staying with the family,” Tedros said on Twitter.

WHO delegates “warmly” welcomed the decision, and many underlined their appreciation that the new government would now attempt to reunite with the international aid group in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci, America’s foremost infectious disease expert, accepted Biden’s offer to join his administration and serve as chief medical officer last month. He will lead a US delegation to WHO’s annual meetings during the week.

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Health

NJ governor blames Walgreens, federal authorities for sluggish Covid vaccine rollout

NJ governor blames Walgreens, federal government for sluggish Covid vaccine rollout

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) blamed Walgreens and the federal government for the Garden State’s sluggish vaccine rollout during an interview Wednesday night on CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith.

“The big reason is the federal program with CVS and Walgreens,” Murphy said. “They basically amassed these cans, they are planning visits to long-term care homes, they are extending their lives and they are suffering from their weight, especially at Walgreens, and that is where most of the remaining cans are.”

Murphy suggested to Shepard Smith that Walgreens “put more bodies on the case” to solve the rollout problem.

On Tuesday, Murphy said that New Jersey was effectively equipped to distribute the vaccine, but that all vendors were missing “are the vaccine doses.” New Jersey has a population of approximately 8,882 million people and has distributed 898,550 vaccines while only 432,220 of them have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pointing out the Covid vaccine doses under state control, Murphy said they get into people’s arms more efficiently.

“There aren’t many doses in hospitals or other distribution points that we directly control that are not in use,” Murphy said. “We get shot in the arms with all areas we can control.”

Smith pushed back with Murphy, insisting that “people lose” when it comes to the slow adoption of vaccines. There are currently more than 123,000 Americans in the hospital and an average of 3,000 people die each day, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The pandemic has killed more than 400,000 people since the pandemic started early last year. Murphy pointed to the federal government.

“There is no question that we have a huge imbalance between supply and demand that, with all due respect, begins with the federal government, at least to this day, after they dropped the ball – too promising and too little delivered,” Murphy said. “So if Walgreens hits 1,000, if CVS hits 1,000, and we as a state continue to do what we do, which gets vaccines into people’s arms, we’ve still been disappointed by the Fed.”

Murphy applied for up to $ 20 billion in federal aid to help with Covid’s deficits. President Joe Biden said Friday that he would use the Defense Production Act to increase vaccine supplies during his first month in office.

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Politics

No Biden point out, glosses over Covid deaths, Capitol riot

No Biden mention, glosses over Covid deaths, Capitol riot

U.S. President Donald Trump watches as he speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One to leave Washington and cross the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Texas at Andrews Joint Base, Maryland, Jan. 12 To visit in 2021.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

President Donald Trump made a taped farewell speech touting his economic and foreign policy record while glossing over the Capitol uprising that spilled over the last few weeks of his presidency.

He also failed to name his successor Joe Biden. Biden will be inaugurated as the nation’s 46th president on Wednesday.

Trump’s nearly 20-minute speech, taped Monday, described his departure from the White House as the natural conclusion to a job well done, rather than as a result of his loss of the election to Biden.

“We did what we came here for – and much more,” said Trump in the address.

“This week we are inaugurating a new administration and praying for their success in ensuring America’s security and prosperity. We wish them all the best and we want them to be lucky – a very important word,” said Trump.

Trump previously confirmed that a new administration will take command on Wednesday, but he has not officially conceded Biden. In contrast to the farewell speeches of previous presidents, Trump’s address does not specifically mention his successor.

The president’s speech also referred to the January 6 invasion of the Capitol by a swarm of his supporters – an event that killed five people and spurred the House to indict him a second time.

“All Americans were appalled by the attack on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we as Americans value. It can never be tolerated,” Trump said in the speech.

He has declined any responsibility for the invasion. But earlier on Tuesday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said the mob was “provoked” by the President and other powerful people.

Trump is facing impeachment proceedings in the Senate.

In the video, Trump praised his administration’s efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, saying the US “has outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy we have built. It would not have been without the foundations and foundations worked like that. ” “”

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US exceeded 400,000 deaths in Covid on Tuesday. About a quarter of these deaths were reported in the past five weeks alone.

“We mourn every life lost and commit ourselves in your memory to eradicate this terrible pandemic once and for all,” said Trump, whose term ends on Wednesday, in his address.

Trump, who regularly accused the media of “being the people’s enemy” and advocated the promise to drain the swamp of DC, also devoted a sizable portion of the address to a warning of “political censorship and blacklisting.”

“Closing a free and open debate goes against our core values ​​and the most sustainable traditions,” said Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter after his initial reaction to the Capitol uprising.

“Now that I am preparing to hand over power to a new government on Wednesday noon, I want you to know that the movement we have started is only just beginning,” he said.

However, it is unclear whether this movement will include Trump – at least as a candidate for elected office. Senate minority chairman Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., vowed earlier Tuesday that if Trump is convicted after his impeachment trial, he will “vote on preventing him from running again.”

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Germany discovers Covid variant in Bavaria

Germany discovers Covid variant in Bavaria

There is snow in front of the entrance to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen hospital. A possibly new variant of the corona virus was discovered in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen hospital. Samples are currently being examined in the Charité hospital in Berlin, the hospital announced on Monday.

Image Alliance | Image Alliance | Getty Images

Germany is the youngest country to have discovered a new mutation in the coronavirus. A new variant was identified in a group of hospital patients in Bavaria.

Local news agencies reported for the first time on Monday that an unknown variant of the corona virus had been discovered in 35 patients in a hospital in the Bavarian ski town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in southeast Germany.

The modified virus was found in 35 of 73 newly infected people in the hospital, the Bavarian news agency BR24 reported on Monday. According to reports, samples are currently being examined at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. CNBC reached out to the German Ministry of Health to confirm the reports.

Officials said the variant was different from recently discovered variants in the UK and South Africa.

The hospital’s deputy medical director, Clemens Stockklausner, told a press conference on Monday that there was still no understanding of whether the mutation had made the virus more transmissible (as in the variants discovered in the UK and South Africa) or more deadly.

“At the moment we have discovered a small point mutation … and it is absolutely not clear whether it will be of clinical relevance,” said Stockklausner. “We have to wait for the sequencing to be complete.”

Neither the British nor the South African variants cause more deaths, although due to their ability to spread more easily, they have caused more infections, hospitalizations and, unfortunately, more deaths. In the UK and Ireland in particular, the mutated virus has spread rapidly, causing a surge in infections and causing some hospitals to face an influx of patients.

Information about the new variant found in Germany was published on the same day that the country’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said that the current state of coronavirus sequencing in the country was insufficient and that the laboratories would be obliged (and compensated) Coronavirus samples used to monitor the virus to sequence mutations.

A handful of other countries that have detected coronavirus mutations, including the UK and South Africa, are known for their large-scale surveillance and genome sequencing of coronavirus samples.

Last week, Dr. Janosch Dahmen, doctor and German MP for the Greens, told CNBC: “We need a more precise crisis mode here in Germany to fight the pandemic, and I am very concerned that the number (of infections) will go far higher than we do can see in the UK and Ireland right now. “

Infections persist

The 16 German Prime Ministers will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday to discuss whether the lockdown restrictions across the country, which are due to end soon, should be tightened or extended on Jan. 31.

The German infection rate is still an important problem. Another 11,369 cases per day were reported Tuesday by the health department, the Robert Koch Institute. This brings the total number of cases to just over 2 million. The death toll stands at 47,622.

Germany, like other European countries, endeavored to avoid the spread of the more infectious virus strains in Great Britain and South Africa.

Merkel reportedly told her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lawmakers last week: “If we fail to stop this British virus, we will have ten times as many cases by Easter … W.e still need eight to ten weeks of tough measures, “reported the German daily Bild.

On Monday, Spahn insisted that the coronavirus mutation discovered in Great Britain should not be called an “English variant”.

“Just as we didn’t talk about the ‘Chinese virus’ last year, we shouldn’t talk about the ‘English version’ now,” said Spahn, reported Reuters.

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Health

Children and Covid Exams: What You Have to Know

Kids and Covid Tests: What You Need to Know

If you’re still not sure if your child needs a test, call the pediatrician, said Dr. Kristin Moffitt, an infectious disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. You can also use the CDC’s clinical assessment tool, which can be used for any family member, including children.

Virus tests for children are largely the same as for adults. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the emergency use of two basic categories of diagnostic tests. The most sensitive are those molecular PCR teststhat detect the genetic material of the virus and take days to produce results (some sites offer results in just a day). The second type of test that Antigen test, hunts for fragments of proteins that are on or within the coronavirus. Antigen tests usually give results quickly within 15 minutes, but can be less sensitive than molecular tests.

The way your provider collects your sample may vary. Whether you get a PCR test or an antigen test, the collection method can be one of the following: nasopharyngeal swab (the long swab with a brush on the end that goes up to the nose towards the throat) ;; a shorter swab that is inserted about an inch into the nostrils; a long swab of tonsils in the throat; or a short swab on the gums and cheeks. The new saliva tests, which are still under review, involve drooling into a sterilized container, which can be tricky for young children.

FastMed Urgent Care, which has a network of more than 100 clinics in Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas, currently uses a long swab for the rapid antigen test and a short swab for the PCR test, said Dr. Lane Tassin. one of the company’s chief medical officers. However, MedExpress, another emergency group with clinics in 16 states, tests all patients with the shorter nasal swab when they run either PCR or antigen tests at their nearly 200 emergency centers, said Jane Trombetta, the company’s chief clinical officer.

Updated

Jan. 18, 2021, 11:23 p.m. ET

The type of test your child will get depends largely on what is available in your area, how long it takes for the results to come back, and why the child needs them, according to the experts.

Some daycare and schools only accept PCR results so they can return to school. So it is best to check their rules in advance.

The long-swab molecular test is considered the “gold standard”, but other less invasive test methods are also reliable. For routine testing, Dr. Jay K. Varma, senior public health advisor for the New York City Mayor’s office, that the shorter swab “works basically as well as the longer, deeper swab. This applies to both adults and children. In fact, he added, New York City public test sites began to switch from long swabs to short swabs in the summer.

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Health

Biden Covid advisor challenges Cuomo’s letter to purchase vaccine instantly

Biden Covid advisor challenges Cuomo's letter to buy vaccine directly

Dr. Coveline Gounder, a member of the Covid Advisory Board of President-elect Joe Biden, slammed the Trump administration’s piecemeal Covid response as some states in the US struggled to get the vaccine doses they needed.

“I think we have already received too many patchwork reactions in the states,” said Gounder in an interview on Monday evening for “The News with Shepard Smith”.

In a briefing on the coronavirus on Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the federal government was sending his state 50,000 less doses of vaccine than the week before. The state received fewer doses when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded immunization rights to people over 65 years of age on Jan.

On Monday, Cuomo sent a letter to Pfizer asking if New York State could buy vaccines directly from the company. Last week, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer made a similar request to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.

Gounder told host Shepard Smith that this approach could cause more problems than it could solve.

“I think Governor Cuomo himself had already said in the spring that the ventilator situation was essentially ‘one big Ebay’ with all states bidding against each other for ventilators, and I think this is one approach to vaccine allocation In all honesty, this will lead to the same situation that he himself criticized last spring, “said Gounder.

Data from the CDC shows that the US gets an average of 900,000 vaccinations per day. During an interview with Fox News, Azar quoted the CDC number and criticized the Biden government’s goal of “100 million gun shots in the first 100 days.”

“We’ll have 250 million doses of vaccine distributed by the end of April,” said Azar. “If by then they have only had 100 million vaccinations, it will be a tragic waste of the opportunity we gave them.”

Gounder, an epidemiologist at NYU, qualified Azar’s testimony, noting that the distribution did not mean actual injections of the vaccine.

“We saw, however, that the distribution is very different from shooting in the arms, that the last mile of delivery is really the hardest part here,” explained Gounder. “Second, we have to confirm that this number of doses, the 250 million figure he cites there, will really be down.”

Cuomo beat him up in a separate letter to Azar for “confusing” the public about vaccine supplies. Azar admitted on Friday that there are currently no supplies.

Biden consultant Dr. Michael Osterholm warned that the worst of the Covid pandemic is yet to come and the data supports his dire prediction. The U.S. is rapidly approaching 400,000 deaths in the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That is roughly one in 822 Americans. According to the Covid Tracking Project, at least 23,000 people were in intensive care units in the United States for 19 consecutive days due to Covid. The HHS reported that nearly 80% of ICU beds nationwide are occupied.

Gounder said the US is “at our fifth peak right now” and that the next few months will be all about “shift protection” to avoid another.

“We really need to focus on things like masking and social distancing, outside instead of inside, well-ventilated spaces,” warned Gounder. “If we do these things it may be our final climax, but it really depends on each of us doing what needs to be done to get back to normal life.”