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Health

Texas reviews what often is the first U.S. dying from monkeypox

Texas reports what may be the first U.S. death from monkeypox

Texas health officials said Tuesday that a patient diagnosed with monkeypox died in what may be the nation’s first-known fatality from the virus.

The patient was an adult with a severely compromised immune system who lived in the Houston area, health officials said. The case is under investigation to determine what role monkeypox played in the individual’s death, officials said.

“Monkeypox is a serious disease, particularly for those with weakened immune systems,” said Dr. John Hellerstedt, the Texas state health commissioner. “We continue to urge people to seek treatment if they have been exposed to monkeypox or have symptoms consistent with the disease.”

Monkeypox is generally not life threatening, but people with compromised immune systems are at higher risk of severe disease. Patients typically develop lesions that often look similar to pimples or blisters and cause excruciating pain.

Eight countries have reported a total of 15 deaths from monkeypox since the global outbreak began this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths were previously reported in Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Spain and the Central African Republic.

The US is battling the largest monkeypox outbreak in the world right now. More than 18,000 cases have been reported across the country, with infections now confirmed in every state as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, according to CDC data.

Across the world, nearly 49,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 99 countries, the data shows.

The virus is primarily spreading through sexual contact among gay and bisexual men, according to the CDC. About 94% of confirmed cases were associated with sex and nearly all of the patients are men who have sex with men, Demetre Daskalakis, deputy head of the White House monkeypox response team, told reporters Friday.

The outbreak in the US is disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic men. About 30% of monkeypox patients are white, 32% are Hispanic and 33% are Black, according to CDC data. Whites make up about 59% of the US population while Hispanics and Blacks account for 19% and 13%, respectively.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday said health officials are cautiously optimistic the spread of the virus may be slowing as new cases fall in major cities.

“We’re watching this with cautious optimism, and really hopeful that many of our harm-reduction messages and our vaccines are getting out there and working,” Walensky told reporters Friday.

The US is hoping to contain the outbreak by administering vaccines, expanding testing, distributing antiviral treatments, and educating gay and bisexual men about the virus.

The federal government has distributed 1.5 million doses of the monkeypox vaccine so far. More than 3 million doses should be available to states and local jurisdictions when the latest distribution round is complete, according to Dawn O’Connell, head of the office responsible for the national stockpile at the Health and Human Services Department.

The monkeypox vaccine, called Jynneos, is administered in two doses 28 days apart. It is the only vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the US for monkeypox. Jynneos is manufactured by Bavarian Nordic, a biotech company based in Denmark.

To increase the limited supply, the FDA has authorized a different method to administer the vaccine. The vaccine is now being given through intradermal injection for adults, or between the layers of the skin. This method uses a lower volume dosage which allows health-care providers to extract five doses from each vial.

There is no data on the real-world efficacy of the vaccine in the current outbreak, according to the CDC. But health officials have emphasized that it’s crucial for people to receive two doses in order to trigger the strongest response from the immune system. Protection against the virus is likely highest two weeks after the second dose, according to the CDC.

The World Health Organization and the CDC have said people at high risk can reduce their chances of exposure to monkeypox by limiting their sexual partners until the second week after they receive the second dose of the vaccine. People can also reduce their risk of exposure by avoiding sex parties until they are vaccinated, according to the CDC.

For people who have monkeypox or whose partners have the virus, the best way to avoid infection is by avoiding sex of any kind while sick, according to the CDC. It’s particularly important to avoid touching any rash and not to share objects or materials such as towels, sex toys, fetish gear or tooth brushes.

The CDC is also encouraging people to exchange contact information with any new sexual partners.

CNBC Health & Science

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Politics

Afghanistan evacuations pace up amid reviews of Taliban violence, crackdown on ladies

Afghanistan evacuations speed up amid reports of Taliban violence, crackdown on women

People wait to be evacuated from Afghanistan at the airport in Kabul on August 18, 2021 following the Taliban stunning takeover of the country. (Photo by – / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

– | AFP | Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Evacuations from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport picked up pace Wednesday after a frenzied and deadly start to the week as foreigners and Afghans scramble to get out of the country now under control of the Taliban.

Thousands of diplomats and aid workers have been evacuated, according to Western governments, along with at least several hundred Afghans, though the exact numbers remain unclear.

More than 2,200 diplomats and other civilian workers have been evacuated on military flights, according to Reuters, citing an anonymous security official, though the nationalities of the evacuees have not been confirmed and it is not known whether that figure includes the more than 600 Afghans crammed onto a U.S. C-17 aircraft that took them to Qatar.

Evacuees crowd the interior of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, carrying some 640 Afghans to Qatar from Kabul, Afghanistan August 15, 2021.

Courtesy of Defense One | Handout via Reuters

The British government says it is taking approximately 1,000 people per day out of Afghanistan. “We’re still bringing out British nationals … and those Afghan nationals who are part of our locally employed scheme,” U.K. Interior Minister Priti Patel told the BBC on Wednesday.

The Pentagon’s goal is to get 5,000 to 9,000 people out of Kabul daily, said Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for regional operations, said at a news conference Tuesday.

Taylor expects a departure tempo of one U.S. military cargo aircraft per hour. He said about 4,000 U.S. troops are stationed in the capital to aid in the evacuation efforts and provide security.

Taliban promise rights, amnesty

The missions are being carried out as the Taliban lay out for the world what they claim their leadership will look like — and as reports surface of fresh brutality by the militants.

In a somewhat surreal press conference Tuesday night, a spokesman for the militant Islamic group, infamous for its brutal executions and oppression of dissenters, women, and anyone who fell afoul of its ultraconservative rules, promised rights for women and the press and amnesty for government officials.

“I would like to assure the international community, including the United States, that nobody will be harmed,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters. “We don’t want any internal or external enemies.”

He said the Taliban would ensure safety for anyone who laid down their weapons, regardless of their past affiliations, and would allow women to work and go to school, but “within the framework of Islam” — a vague parameter given the extreme interpretation of the religion that the group is known for.

Reports of human rights violations by Taliban fighters have surfaced in other parts of the country in recent weeks, and many Afghans remain desperate to flee the country for fear of reprisal for their role in helping U.S. and allied forces. Whether the group will stay true to its word is yet to be seen.

NBC News’ Richard Engel said local media reported that Taliban fighters killed two demonstrators at a protest in Jalalabad.

Reports of violence, blocked routes to airport

In contrast to the conciliatory image Taliban representatives attempted to convey during their press conference Tuesday, reports are surfacing from Kabul and around the country of beatings, shootings of civilians and women being barred from educational institutions by Taliban members.

Despite promises of “safe passage” to Kabul airport for those who want to leave the country, the State Department has received reports of people being turned away, pushed back and beaten when trying to access the airport, national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday.

Photos published by NBC on Wednesday and taken by a Los Angeles Times reporter show bloodied adults and children in Kabul after being beaten by Taliban militants. The group’s officials deny their fighters took part in any such violence, insisting it was carried out by men impersonating the Taliban.

Women are also describing being blocked from their places of work and education by Taliban members, in contradiction of the group’s pledge to continue to allow women to participate in the workforce and go to school.

“Taliban didn’t allow my ex-colleague here in @TOLOnews and famous anchor of the State-owned @rtapashto Shabnam Dawran to start her work today,” Miraqa Popal, head of news at Afghan broadcaster Tolo News, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, along with a video of his colleague recounting the event.

“Despite wearing a hijab & carrying correct ID, I was told by Taliban: The regime has changed. Go home,” Dawran, the female anchor, says in the video, according to Popal.

Read more on the developments in Afghanistan:

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Health

Vaccinated Folks Could Unfold the Virus, Although Hardly ever, C.D.C. Reviews

Vaccinated People May Spread the Virus, Though Rarely, C.D.C. Reports

In another unexpected and unwelcome twist in the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Friday strongly suggesting that fully immunized people with so-called breakthrough Delta variant infections can pass the virus on to others as easily as unvaccinated people People.

The vaccines remain highly effective against serious illness and death, and the agency said infections are comparatively rare in people who have been vaccinated. But the reveal follows a number of other recent discoveries about the Delta variant that have turned scientists’ understanding of the coronavirus on its head.

In the new report, which should explain the agency’s sudden revision of its masking recommendations for vaccinated Americans, the CDC described an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts this month that rose rapidly to 470 cases in Massachusetts alone by Thursday.

Three quarters of those infected were fully immunized, and the Delta variant was found in most of the genetically analyzed samples. Vaccinated and unvaccinated people who were infected carried high levels of the virus, the agency reported.

“High viral loads indicate an increased risk of transmission and raised concerns that, unlike other variants, people infected with Delta can transmit the virus,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, on Friday.

The viral load data shows that even fully vaccinated people can spread the virus just as easily as unvaccinated people who become infected. “We believe this can be done on an individual level, which is why we have updated our recommendation,” said Dr. Walensky in an email to the New York Times earlier this week.

An internal agency document the Times received Thursday evening indicated even greater concern among CDC scientists, raising harrowing questions about the virus and its trajectory.

The delta variant is about as contagious as chickenpox, the document says, and universal masking may be necessary. Nevertheless, according to the agency, breakthrough infections are rare overall.

On Friday, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that the breakthrough rate among fully vaccinated people in states that store such data is less than 1 percent.

The accumulated research on the variant messes up the country’s plans to return to offices and schools this fall, and enlivens tough questions about masking, testing, and other precautions that Americans had hoped were behind them.

Government officials and scientists alike are seriously concerned that the results could shake confidence in the vaccines and shake the nation’s delayed vaccination campaign if Americans mistakenly conclude that the vaccinations are not effective.

Concerned about the delayed campaign, President Biden has ordered all federal employees to be vaccinated or tested for viruses on a weekly basis. Support for vaccination regulations is growing at some companies and in some parts of the country.

Developing research into the Delta variant has humiliated scientists around the world who are now asking themselves new questions about the virus that they had not considered.

They do not understand the circumstances that can increase the likelihood of a breakthrough infection, nor who is most at risk. They don’t know for sure that the Delta variant causes more severe illness in unvaccinated people who become infected, although early data suggests it.

“We spent so much time, energy, and treasure last year trying to figure out this damn virus and how it works and what it does,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California. San Francisco.

To learn how differently the Delta variant differs from the original virus is “just plain staggering,” he added. “The brain doesn’t like being pushed around like that.”

While breakthrough infections are rare, the new data suggest that those who were vaccinated may contribute to an increase in new infections – albeit likely to a far lesser extent than those who were not. Breakthrough infections have always been reckoned with, but until the arrival of the Delta variant, vaccinated Americans were not seen as drivers of its spread in the community.

“Delta teaches us to expect the unexpected,” said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. “There are aspects of what we now know that we don’t see coming.”

Updated

July 30, 2021, 7:36 p.m. ET

The finding is frightening, but vaccines remain the only reliable shield against the virus in whatever form. Even with the Delta variant, the vaccines largely prevent infection and significantly reduce the likelihood of serious illness or death in the event of an infection.

Nationwide, about 97 percent of people hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, according to the CDC.

“Full vaccination is very protective, even against Delta,” said Angela Rasmussen, researcher at the Organization for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

“Masks are a wise precaution, but most of the transmission occurs among the unvaccinated and that is still the most at risk,” she added.

The accumulated research underscores the urgency to accelerate the rate of vaccination in the United States and reduce the number of people susceptible to serious illnesses. This week, the vaccination rate in the European Union exceeded that in the US for the first time.

About 58 percent of Americans 12 years and older are fully vaccinated. The rate of vaccination has slowed to just over 500,000 people a day, although it has swung up slightly in recent weeks as infections pick up again.

In the UK, where the variant seems to have subsided after an increase, vaccinations have been introduced by age and a much higher proportion of people over 50 are vaccinated than in the United States.

Understand the state of vaccine mandates in the United States

Vaccination rates are much more inconsistent across the United States, said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. “The result is that what Delta is doing in the UK is not necessarily what it will be doing in places with very different vaccinations,” he said.

“Things are getting worse than they would have been,” without the variant, he added. “But they will be much better than they would have been without the vaccination.”

In its report on Friday, the CDC urged local and state officials in jurisdictions with even lower virus concentrations to consider precautions such as masking and restricting gatherings. The CDC internal document sounded more urgent, recommending that the agency “recognize that the war has changed”.

Indeed, the questions Americans now face seem almost inexhaustible, almost insoluble. Should companies allow employees to return to work when vaccinated people could occasionally spread the variant? What does this mean for shops, restaurants and schools? Are unmasked family celebrations off the table again?

With the number of daily cases averaging nearly 72,000 on Friday, the new data suggests vaccinated people with young children, aging parents, or friends and family with weak immune systems may need to wear masks to protect those around them – even in Communities with lower infection rates.

The Provincetown, Massachusetts outbreak germinated this month after more than 60,000 revelers celebrated the July 4th gathering in crowded bars, restaurants, guest houses and rental apartments, often indoors.

On July 3, there were no cases in the city or the surrounding district. By July 10, officials saw an increase and by July 17 there were 177 cases per 100,000 people. The outbreak has since spread to nearly 900 people across the country.

“Vaccines are like waders,” said Dr. Rasmussen. “They keep you dry when you wade through a river, but when you get too deep, water starts flowing over it. That seems to have happened with the Massachusetts eruption. “

Three-quarters of citizens linked to the outbreak reported a cough, headache, sore throat, or fever – symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection – and 74 percent were known to be fully immunized.

Of the five people hospitalized, four were fully vaccinated – one with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and three with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Two of the vaccinated patients had previous illnesses. The genetic analysis of 133 cases identified the delta variant in 119 cases and a closely related virus in another case.

Scientists even warned last year that the vaccines may not completely prevent infection or transmission. However, experts didn’t expect these infections to play a significant role in the fight against the virus, nor did they anticipate how quickly the Delta variant would rip across the country.

“Two months ago I thought we were over the top,” said Dr. Guardian. In San Francisco, the most heavily vaccinated city in the country, 77 percent of people over the age of 12 are vaccinated.

And yet the hospital he works in has grown significantly, from a Covid-19 case on June 1 to 40 now. 15 of the patients are in intensive care.

“When a 70 or 75 percent immunity doesn’t protect the community, I think it’s very difficult to extrapolate what happens to a place that is 30 percent vaccinated,” said Dr. Guardian. “Humility is perhaps the most important thing here.”

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Health

Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Protects In opposition to Delta Variant, Firm Experiences

Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Protects Against Delta Variant, Company Reports

Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is still effective eight months after being vaccinated against the highly contagious Delta variant, the company reported Thursday – a result that should reassure the 11 million Americans who received the vaccination.

The vaccine showed a slight decrease in effectiveness against the variant compared to its effectiveness against the original virus, the company said. But the vaccine was more effective against the Delta variant than the beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa – the pattern was also seen with mRNA vaccines.

Antibodies stimulated by the vaccine get stronger over time, researchers also reported.

The results were described in a press release, and the company announced that both studies were submitted for online publication on Thursday. One of these studies was accepted for publication in a scientific journal. Both studies are small, and the researchers said they published the results early because of the great public interest.

“The coverage of the variants will be better than expected,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “There was a lot of misinformation out there so we decided we had to get this public right away.”

The intense discourse about Delta’s threat has made even immunized people worry about whether they are protected. The variant first identified in India is much more transmissible than previous versions of the virus, and its global spread has resulted in new health restrictions from Ireland to Malaysia.

In the USA, the variant now accounts for every fourth new infection. Public health officials said the vaccines approved in the United States will work against all existing variants, but the data is primarily based on studies of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

That made some people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine ask, What about us?

The frustration built before the Delta variant appeared. For example, the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that vaccinated people could do without masks in many indoor situations were mainly based on data for mRNA vaccines. And reports of an accumulation of infections among players on the Yankees baseball team that the J. & J. Shot did nothing to allay fears that the vaccine might be inferior to others.

Martha Young, 63, of Mountain View, California received the J. & J. shot on April 9th. It wasn’t their first choice, but it was offered. But since then she has said, “I’m very, very frustrated with the lack of information.”

She added, referring to the J. & J. “I felt like I didn’t count, like I was statistically insignificant because so few of us stand a chance that we don’t have to worry about us.”

Some people familiar with the J. & J. Vaccine complained that they felt cheated by experts who said the vaccines were all equally good. “I was surprised to see others make that claim,” said Natalie Dean, biostatistician at the University of Florida. “I did not like it. People don’t want to feel misled. “

However, other experts said the clinical trials should have shown that the J. & J. Vaccine was lower than that of the mRNA vaccines. “Of course, 72 percent is less than 95 or 94 percent,” says Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in New York.

Part of the difficulty with comparing the vaccines is that they were all tested individually and with different measures of success. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna studies were designed to capture symptomatic infections, while the J. & J. Study looked at the prevention of moderate to severe infections by the vaccine.

Still, it’s clear that all vaccines keep people out of the intensive care unit and morgue far more effectively than scientists could hope for, said Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London.

Updated

July 1, 2021, 10:13 p.m. ET

“It’s like arguing whether you want a Ferrari or a Porsche that goes 250 or 180 mph on a road that is only allowed to drive 30 miles an hour,” he said.

However, there are differences: The J. & J. The vaccine can allow more so-called breakthrough infections – which occur in people who are fully vaccinated – with mild to no symptoms than the mRNA vaccines.

People with asymptomatic infections are very unlikely to spread the virus, but their diagnosis can become a problem when they’re caught by routine tests – as was the case with the Yankees cluster – and they have to go into quarantine, said John Moore, one Virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

Information on the effectiveness of the J. & J. The vaccine was slow to get to market because it was launched later and its use was suspended due to concerns about infrequent blood clots. Many medical centers and hospitals offered staff the mRNA vaccines early on and were able to conduct studies to evaluate these vaccines.

But blood samples from people who were tested with the J. & J. Vaccines are a comparatively rare commodity, said Dr. Krammer. “It’s not that nobody cares, or we’re hiding something because the vaccine isn’t good,” he said. “It’s more of an access problem.”

In the absence of data, some experts had suggested that the J. & J. Vaccination against the Delta variant probably performed about as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is widely used in Europe. But this vaccine is given in two doses compared to J. & J’s single dose.

“The thing that I do at J. & J. is that their technology platform is essentially very, very similar – almost indistinguishable from AstraZeneca, ”said Dr. Altmann. “Should it really be a two-dose vaccine like everything else?”

The single dose offers benefits for those with limited access or who do not want two doses for other reasons. The J. & J. The vaccine also lasts longer in the refrigerator than the others and was a welcome option earlier in the pandemic when vaccines were scarce.

But after the advent of variants like Beta and Delta, which seem to bypass the immune system in part, the discussion about boosters for J. & J. Receiver intensified. One dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is much less effective against variants than two doses, and experts feared that J. & J. Shot could be similar.

The new study addressed some of these concerns.

While blood antibody levels produced after immunization with Pfizer or Moderna decrease after an initial increase, antibodies – and immune cells – are released by the J. & J. Vaccine remains at a high level. (Other studies have shown that immune responses generated by mRNA vaccines are likely to last for years, too.)

A lack of information about the J. & J. Vaccine had led many people to speculate that it might need to be supplemented with a dose of an mRNA vaccine. But at least for now, people who have the J. & J. Vaccine shouldn’t need a booster shot, nor can they legally get one, “unless they’re playing the system, unless they pretend they’re vaccine naïve and get an mRNA vaccine and are essentially lying,” said Dr . Moore, “and I certainly … don’t recommend people do that.”

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Health

China’s Guangzhou studies zero new circumstances for first time in new cluster

China's Guangzhou reports zero new cases for first time in new cluster

A citizen reacts to a throat swab sampling during a mass covid test in Guangzhou in south China’s Guangdong province Monday, May 31, 2021.

Barcroft Media | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China — The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has reported zero new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for the first time since a new cluster of cases cropped up in May.

The recent uptick in cases prompted mass testing and lockdowns, and also threatened global trade.

On Tuesday, health authorities found no new confirmed cases in Guangzhou, a city of over 15 million people which became China’s new Covid hotspot.

The first new case, a 75-year-old woman, was detected on May 21. It was the first time the delta variant of the virus, first identified in India, was detected in China.

Authorities were concerned because of the highly transmissible nature of the variant and took action swiftly.

Liwan, in the west of Guangzhou, had parts of the district locked down. People were not allowed in or out of these areas except under special circumstances. Some restaurants had to close, while others operated take-out only or at a reduced capacity.

Health workers lined the streets of Guangzhou to carry out mass coronavirus testing on the population. Tens of millions of people have been tested in the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, police in Guangzhou fined and detained individuals who allegedly broke laws such as not wearing masks in public, or not cooperating when asked to take a coronavirus test.

Guangzhou’s outbreak, which threatened to spread more broadly across the Guangdong province, an economic and trading powerhouse, has also impacted shipping. Increased checks and virus prevention measures have caused delays at Guangdong’s key shipping ports with experts warning it could lead to disruptions to the global supply chain.

Authorities have also urged people to get vaccinated in Guangdong province and across China. Over 900 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the country.

While one day of zero new cases is a positive development, authorities will be hoping it can be sustained so they can eventually fully reopen the local economy and take areas out of lockdown.

On Wednesday, Chen Bin, deputy director of the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission, said zero cases “does not mean zero risk,” according to comments reported by local media. Authorities have continuously urged citizens to remain cautious and continue to wear masks and reduce unnecessary social contact.

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Health

Experiences of Extreme Covid or Demise After Vaccination Are Uncommon, however Not Surprising

Reports of Severe Covid or Death After Vaccination Are Rare, but Not Unexpected

In the past few months, a constant headline hit has highlighted the amazing effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines in the field, particularly mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Studies have shown that the vaccines are more than 90 percent effective in preventing the worst outcomes, including hospitalization and death.

But alongside this good news, there have been rare reports of severe Covid in fully vaccinated people.

For example, on June 3, Napa County announced that a fully vaccinated woman who was more than a month after her second Moderna vaccination had died after being hospitalized with Covid. The over 65-year-old woman with previous illnesses had tested positive for the alpha variant identified for the first time in Great Britain.

While these cases are tragic, they are unusual – and not unexpected.

“I am very sad that she had such a serious illness that she actually died,” said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and vaccines expert at Vanderbilt University. But, he noted, “we expected the occasional breakthrough infection to occur.”

Such cases shouldn’t prevent people from getting vaccinated, scientists said. “There is no vaccine in history that has ever been 100 percent effective,” said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “This is your best chance to avoid serious, critical illness. But as with everything in medicine, it is not perfect. “

Severe Covid is rare in fully vaccinated people. In a paper released last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they had received reports of 10,262 breakthrough infections as of April 30. That’s only a tiny fraction of the 101 million Americans who have been vaccinated to that date, though the agency noted that these are likely to be a “significant minority” of breakthrough infections.

Of these groundbreaking cases, 10 percent of patients were hospitalized and 2 percent died – and in some of those cases, patients were hospitalized or died of something unrelated to Covid-19. The average age of the deceased was 82 years.

Updated

June 11, 2021, 2:36 p.m. ET

Older adults, who are at higher risk of Covid complications, are also more likely to develop breakthrough infections as they are known to build weaker immune responses to vaccines. People with compromised immune systems or other chronic health conditions may also be at increased risk.

Some of the variants – especially Beta, which was first identified in South Africa – may be more likely to evade vaccine-induced protection. But beta isn’t common in the United States right now, noted Dr. Conductor.

The alpha variant that infected the Napa County woman is highly contagious, but vaccines offer good protection against it – as well as against the original strain of the virus.

“Breakthrough infection stories, while exceptionally rare, can be confusing to the public,” said Dr. Napa County’s health officer Karen Relucio in an email. “We know that with stories like this one could be tempted to question the effectiveness of vaccines.”

But the vaccines are highly effective, she stressed. In Napa County, the breakthrough infection rate in fully vaccinated people is just 0.04 percent, she said.

Nationwide, the rate is even lower. According to the California Department of Health, there were 5,723 breakthrough cases in more than 17.5 million fully vaccinated residents as of June 2, a rate of 0.032 percent. Of these cases, only 7 percent are known to have been hospitalized and 0.8 percent to have died. In these cases, too, it is unclear whether Covid was the main cause of death.

Breakthrough infections are likely to decline as more people are vaccinated and community transmission rates decline. “The virus will find fewer and fewer people to become infected – it will be more difficult for the virus to get through the population,” said Dr. Conductor. “These are great vaccines. So that the vaccines work optimally – individually and collectively – as many people as possible must be vaccinated. “

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Business

All eyes on Walmart+ when retailer reviews 1Q earnings Tuesday

All eyes on Walmart+ when retailer reports 1Q earnings Tuesday

From now on, everything for Walmart revolves around loyalty and loyalty.

One of the tools it will use to do this is Walmart +, a subscription service that the company launched in September.

Walmart is expected to provide a progress report on the program when it releases a earnings report on Tuesday. So far, the retailer hasn’t shared any subscriber numbers – and that probably won’t change this week – but investors and analysts will be listening for clues as to whether the program is helping the retailer deepen relationships with its customers and provide them with other types of services to sell. Holding on to market share and trips to the store has become more important, especially as consumers are vaccinated and allowed to revert to typical spending patterns prior to the pandemic.

Walmart + is part of the retailer’s plans to expand its business beyond retail and leverage its reach to make money in other ways, from advertising and financial services to healthcare. When customers sign up for the program, the retailer can learn more about their shopping list and preferences. These can then be converted into customer benefits like personalized coupons and new sources of income like targeted ads.

“This is another tool Walmart has to help drive loyalty and growth online,” said Michael Lasser, retail analyst at UBS. “And what’s important, it allows it [the company] to collect more data from its consumers. “

Increasing competition, falling stocks

Walmart, the largest grocer in the country, saw sales spike throughout the pandemic, especially on the internet, as Americans scaled back shopping trips and focused on groceries and other pandemic-related necessities, from soap to puzzles. Sales in the same store increased 8.6% in the last fiscal year in the US and e-commerce sales increased 79% year over year. Despite its size, the discounter faces numerous competitive threats from e-commerce forces like Amazon, low-cost retailers like Dollar General and Aldi, and third-party disruptors like Instacart and Fresh Direct.

In a corporate memo recently received from Recode, Walmart was open about the challenges facing grocery shoppers choosing competitors like Target, Publix and Albertsons, and how members who sign up for Walmart + can be held after their subscriptions expire .

Walmart hit a 52-week high of $ 153.66 on December 1. Since then, stocks have fallen to $ 139. Walmart’s fourth quarter profit resulted in a sell-off as company executives said the retailer would increase its investments to $ 14 billion and expected sales to weaken for the year. Stocks are down another 3% this year, which translates to a market value of around $ 391 billion.

Walmart’s revenue growth is expected to slow in the first quarter as pandemic-related spending eases. UBS expects the retailer’s US sales to grow 1.5% in the first quarter. That’s less than the 10% growth that Walmart saw in the first quarter a year ago, but higher than the average 3.6% drop in sales in the same store that UBS expects for consumables retailers.

The company’s earnings per share are projected to be $ 1.21 and revenues are $ 132.09 billion, based on consensus refinitive estimates

Walmart has not provided a specific guidance for the fiscal year, but expects net sales to increase in the low single digits and, excluding the effects of divestments, operating income and earnings per share to increase flat or slightly.

Walmart + is Walmart’s answer to Amazon Prime, but with its own perks and a value-driven twist. The subscription service costs $ 98 for a year or $ 12.95 for a month. It includes features like fuel discounts, free next and second day shipping, and unlimited deliveries of groceries and other merchandise from Walmart stores.

Still in its infancy

According to a recent survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Walmart + has grown to an estimated 8 to 9 million members. That is an increase from an estimated 7.4 million to 8.2 million members at the beginning of the year. Members spend an average of $ 1,100 per year on the Walmart website, according to a study by the company in April. When we surveyed customers in January, annual online spend increased by an average of $ 1,000.

When including in-store purchases, CIRP found that Walmart + members spend an average of $ 1,800 a year because they shop at Walmart.com 50% more often than non-subscribers.

Since launching the subscription service in the fall, Walmart has continued to optimize it. For example, in December, the company lowered an online member shipping minimum of $ 35. This move brought the retailer more in line with Amazon Prime and came during the holiday shopping season.

On an investor day in February, Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, said Walmart + is one of the ways the company can increase sales for new and existing customers. First, however, he said the company would focus on “delivering a quality experience” to customers before adding any other benefits and emphasizing membership growth.

“We don’t want to outdo ourselves and sell too many Walmart + memberships and have a customer experience that is below our expectations or expectations,” he said at the virtual event.

For example, he said, the retailer needs more capacity to keep up with orders for groceries and other stores being delivered to members’ homes – one of the main benefits of the program. The company is adding automated systems to dozens of stores to quickly pick items and fulfill more online orders.

“Over time, more of our customers will want Walmart + because it makes life better,” he said. “This relationship will drive repeat business and provide data that will enable us to serve them even better and be more personalized. It is an important part of our strategy.”

Ultimately, according to Lasser at UBS, the membership program could strengthen other areas of Walmart’s business – like serving ads that are more targeted and relevant based on consumer buying patterns.

Earlier this year, Walmart renamed its advertising business and announced ambitions to become one of the top 10 advertising platforms in the US over the next few years. According to the 2020 annual report, the advertising business accounts for less than 1% of annual sales.

UBS has listed Walmart stock as a buy. The price target for Walmart is $ 160, about 13% higher than stocks.

While the retailer faced tough comparisons a year ago, Lasser said customers were likely buying more goods like televisions, lawn tools, and clothing than basic household and grocery items like paper towels and milk. That could mean more profitable sales for Walmart, he said.

Charlie O’Shea, retail analyst at Moody, said he will be paying attention to the speed of online sales and whether sales have attracted discretionary items. He said he doesn’t expect the company to reveal Walmart + subscriber numbers, but rather expects to know what’s next for the program.

He said Walmart + is still in its infancy compared to Amazon Prime, which launched in 2005. Prime has grown to around 200 million Prime subscribers worldwide, said its CEO Jeff Bezos in April.

Even when Walmart shared subscriber numbers, O’Shea said the pandemic distorted buying patterns and “made it a difficult time to evaluate a membership program.”

“It’s a laboratory experiment that should work,” he said. “But I’m not sure if it will rise to the level of Amazon.”

Categories
World News

Earnings reviews, the Fed will check the market rally within the week forward

Earnings reports, the Fed will test the market rally in the week ahead

A Wall Street sign is seen near the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City on May 4, 2021.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Investors will see if stocks maintain their newfound momentum over the coming week as major retailers like Walmart and Home Depot report earnings and housing data dominate the calendar.

The Federal Reserve can play a role as well. The minutes of the last meeting will be released on Wednesday and after the above-expected consumer and producer inflation in April, market pros will be watching this closely.

Central bank officials are also scheduled to provide comments, including Fed vice chairman Richard Clarida, who will speak next Monday.

Stocks were volatile. The rally on Thursday and Friday could not undo the heavy losses of the week. Defensive consumer staples, financials and materials were on the right track in major sectors for a positive week. The worst results came in consumer staples, down about 3.7% for the week, and technology, down 2.2%.

Technology stocks were among the top performers on Friday’s rally, up around 2.1%. Energy was the best performer with a plus of more than 3%.

“Watch it with a degree of fear,” said Art Hogan, chief marketing strategist at National Securities. “It’s not that the things that terrified us this week like inflation are going away … I think the fact that we recovered at the end of the week is constructive.” He added that he still expects the market to move forward with seizures and starts.

Fed Ahead

The Fed minutes should basically be a repeat of the last central bank meeting. However, it did so before the consumer price index rose a whopping 4.2% yoy in April.

That final meeting also came before the April employment report, which employed just 266,000 people, a quarter of what was expected.

“I think the Fed is ready to look through these weird data points. They think a data point is not a trend,” said Joseph Song, senior US economist at Bank of America.

However, markets have focused on whether data will help clarify when the Fed might be talking about winding up its bond purchase. This would be a precursor to the slow end of the $ 120 billion monthly asset purchase program and a signal that it is one step closer to the rate hike.

Hogan said when the weak employment report was released, market views had turned away from the idea that the Fed might discuss reducing its bond purchases when it holds its Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in late summer.

But the market returned to that view when the hot CPI report was released on Wednesday.

“We saw a hot CPI and a hot PPI,” said Hogan, referring to the producer price index. “That tells us the Fed could be behind the curve.”

The Fed has announced that it is expecting a temporary rate of inflation, but fears it may not be a temporary spike in the market. However, according to Hogan, investors consoled themselves with a decline in iron ore and copper, which fell nearly 2% over the week.

Retail income and housing

Large retailers report quarterly profits during the week. Walmart and Home Depot will report on Tuesday. Target, TJX and Lowes release results on Wednesday and BJ’s Wholesale and Kohl’s on Thursday.

Another disappointing data point was Friday retail sales in April, which was flat with March. But they are still at a high level. Based on the sales report, Hogan said retailers should have done well.

“You will likely hear the usual suspects outperforming. It used to be Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s,” Hogan said. He said now others like TJX and Gap have joined the list and should do well.

In addition to income, there is housing data. The National Association of Home Builders Sentiment Index will be released on Monday, and construction starts will be released on Tuesday. Existing home sales will be issued on Friday.

Hogan said depending on the data, it could help builders who have fallen hard over the past week. He noted that DR Horton and Hovnanian had both been down for the week.

“The housing index was down 5% for the week, even though it was up 1%. [Friday]. This is a brand new sector that has a lot of implications, “he said.” What is good for home sales is good for auto sales too. It’s good for Home Depot and Lowe’s. “

Home builders were part of a broad market that rebounded on Friday.

Scott Redler, chief strategist at T3Live.com, said by the end of the week that some of the growth and tech names were doing better, like Facebook and Alphabet.

“The S&P 500 held the 50-day moving average, which is constructive,” he said.

The S&P 500 reached its 50-day period within about a dozen points, which is the average price of the last 50 closes. It is often a level that acts as a support, but when broken it can signal a negative trend.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5% for the week to 4,173.85. The Nasdaq ended the week at 13,429.98, down 2.3% from the week.

“The tech sector under pressure held its annual uptrend earlier in the week. Today it felt a little better than the rest of the week,” Redler said on Friday. “That doesn’t mean you can get into everything, but you can say that traders are buying better-trading stocks at these prices.”

Calendar for the week ahead

Monday

Merits: Hostess Brands, Lordstown Motors, Tencent

8:30 am Raphael Bostic, Atlanta Fed President, on CNBC

8:30 a.m. Empire production

10:00 am NAHB index

10:25 am Richard Clarida, vice chairman of the Fed, at the Fed conference in Atlanta

4:00 p.m. TIC data

6:00 p.m. Rob Kaplan, President of the Dallas Fed

Tuesday

Merits: Walmart, Home Depot, Macys, Baidu, Take-Two Interactive, Trip.com, NetEase

8:30 a.m. Housing construction begins

11:05 am Rob Kaplan, President of the Dallas Fed

Wednesday

Merits: Target, Lowe’s, JD.Com, Cisco, Schuhkarneval, TJX, Eagle Materials, Analog Devices, L Brands

10:00 am James Bullard, St. Louis Fed President, on economics and monetary policy

2 p.m. FOMC minutes

Thursday

Merits: BJ’s Wholesale, Kohl’s, Petco, Ralph Lauren, Applied Materials, Ross Stores, Deckers Outdoor, Hormel Foods, Palo Alto Networks

8:30 am Initial jobless claims

8:30 a.m. Philadelphia Fed

10:00 a.m. leading indicators

10:00 a.m. St. Louis Fed’s Bullard

10:30 a.m. Dallas Fed Chaplain

Friday

Merits: Deere, Foot Locker, Buckle, VF Corp, Booz Allen Hamilton

9:45 am Markit Manufacturing PMI

9:45 a.m. Markit Services PMI

10:00 am Existing home sales

12:15 p.m. Dallas Fed Chaplain, Atlanta Fed Bostic, and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin in a panel

1:30 p.m. Mary Daly, San Francisco Fed President

Categories
Health

Covid-19 Vaccines: Novavax Stories Extra Delays

Covid-19 Vaccines: Novavax Reports More Delays

Novavax, one of the earliest players in the world’s vaccination race against Covid, delivered disheartening news Monday, saying its highly protective vaccine would not be approved in the US or UK until July and would not reach peak production by the end of the year.

The delays announced during a profit call with investors are the most recent setback for the little-known Maryland company that received up to $ 1.6 billion from the federal government last year and its product is in clinical trials has shown robust results. Despite these achievements, the company has struggled to show it can deliver on its promise to bring 2 billion doses to the world this year. Novavax has never launched a vaccine in its 34-year history.

Speaking on the conference call, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer Stanley C. Erck said the regulatory and manufacturing hurdles causing the delay have now been resolved. “Almost all of the major challenges have been overcome and we can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Investors didn’t seem to agree: by Tuesday morning, the company’s stock had fallen to $ 133.86, down nearly 17 percent, although it rebounded a little later in the day.

“I don’t see much good for them right now,” said Rob Smith, general manager of Capital Alpha Partners, an investment research firm.

The company’s delay is unlikely to affect wealthy countries like the US, which are being flushed with vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson.

It’s likely that this will have a significant impact on the rest of the world, however, as Novavax only signed a deal with Gavi, a public-private global vaccine partnership, last week to sell 1.1 billion doses of its shot at low and medium levels – to deliver. Income Countries. Novavax has other contracts with countries such as South Korea, Japan and Australia and has agreements with eight manufacturing facilities around the world.

In January, the company estimated it would reach its full production capacity of 150 million cans per month by the middle of this year. This forecast was later revised after a lack of supplies such as filters and the huge disposable bags used in vaccine production. On Monday, the company delayed its estimate again, anticipating production of 100 million cans per month by the end of the third quarter and production of 150 million cans per month by the fourth quarter.

One of its key manufacturing partners, the Serum Institute in India, has faced its own manufacturing and geopolitical challenges. A fire at the facility earlier this year reduced capacity, and in April Adar Poonawalla, director of Serum, urged the United States to restrict access to raw vaccine ingredients. And although Novavax’s contract with serum aims to serve the rest of the world through its agreement with Gavi, the Indian government has banned the export of vaccines from the country as it grapples with a deadly second wave of Covid-19.

“Serum is the backbone of global vaccine supplies,” said Andrea Taylor, associate director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, which pursues global vaccine businesses. “I think for countries in South and Southeast Asia in particular, as well as for countries in Africa, it is difficult to overestimate the impact this will have.”

Novavax has also thrown back regulatory hurdles. On Monday, company executives said a problem now resolved with an “assay” – a test that was required to confirm that their product could be consistently manufactured on a commercial scale at multiple factories – was gaining regulatory approvals around the world Delayed countries like the UK and the United States would not give approval until July. The company’s employees once said they were hoping to get approval for their vaccine in April.

The delay is particularly noticeable in the UK, where Novavax reported positive results from its clinical trial in January.

British officials convinced Novavax to set up a study there last year, partly because they promised rapid clinical development and regulatory approval. But time is running out: around two-thirds of UK adults have received an initial dose of a coronavirus vaccine, largely made by AstraZeneca, and each adult is expected to be offered one by the end of July.

Updated

May 11, 2021 at 4:32 p.m. ET

The role of the vaccine in the UK depends in part on how quickly Novavax can start distributing its vaccine. A UK factory that makes the vaccines has announced that they will be ready by the summer. The country recently turned away from AstraZeneca intake in younger people because of the risk of very rare blood clots, so Novavax may be an alternative for people under 40.

The country is also investigating the effects of giving a second dose of the Novavax vaccine to people who have already received a first dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca.

In the US, the Novavax setback sheds new light on the massive deal with the US government. As recently as 2019, the company was on the verge of closing after another vaccine made a major trial and had to sell its manufacturing facility to raise money.

Last year, the Trump administration placed a big bet on the tiny company as part of its Operation Warp Speed ​​project, signing a $ 1.6 billion contract earlier this year to supply 110 million cans. In April, the total amount of the deal increased to $ 1.75 billion, according to Novavax. The company’s major study in the United States and Mexico is still ongoing, despite executives on Monday that they expected the results of that study “in a few weeks.”

Novavax officials said they now didn’t expect to deliver these doses by the end of this year or early 2022. A Novavax spokeswoman said there was no penalty for later delivery in her contract with the U.S. government.

Novavax’s spotty track record offers no confidence in the challenge of producing billions of cans, said Les Funtleyder, healthcare portfolio manager at E Squared Capital Management, which invests in domestic and emerging markets. “It seems they really weren’t prepared for a challenge of this magnitude,” he said.

Recent news about internal sales – such as the departure of Novavax’s chief financial officer last month, five months after he took office for personal reasons – doesn’t help, Funtleyder said. “It’s a bad look,” he said.

But even if there’s a challenging path to follow as a straggler, Novavax’s vaccine could fill important loopholes, some experts said. In the United States, it could be used as a booster shot to bolster dwindling immunity, or the Biden government could choose to donate the vaccine to other countries in need, as it does with the unused supply of AstraZeneca doses .

Novavax has announced that it will develop a new version of its vaccine to address the variant circulating in South Africa. And it was recently announced that it would be investigating the shot in children over the age of 12 to catch up with Moderna and Pfizer, who have already tested their products in that age group.

The vaccine can also be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures without the freezing temperatures required for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

“By the end of 2021, there will still be a great need for safe, effective vaccines that can travel well,” said Ms. Taylor of Duke University. “Novavax seems to fit that description.”

Dr. Saad B. Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, noted that countries with multiple vaccines available were able to switch to other options when concerns about Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines were raised due to blood clot association.

“It’s good to hedge our bets,” he said. “For example, if we want to avoid one body blow after another in low-income countries in many parts of the world that affects everyone, we have to vaccinate a large part of the world.”

Benjamin Mueller and Noah Weiland contributed to the reporting.

Categories
Politics

F.B.I. Experiences Agent-Concerned Capturing at C.I.A. Headquarters

F.B.I. Reports Agent-Involved Shooting at C.I.A. Headquarters

A gunman was wounded in a shootout early Monday night involving an FBI agent at CIA headquarters outside Washington, the FBI said in a statement.

According to the FBI, the man got out of his vehicle, was “hired by police officers” and wounded around 6:00 pm. The man was taken to hospital following the episode previously reported on by NBC News. The hospital was not named.

“The FBI takes seriously any shooting incident involving our agents or task force members,” Samantha Shero, a public affairs officer with the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said in an email. “The review process is thorough and objective and is carried out as quickly as possible under the circumstances.”

A CIA spokesman said the agency’s headquarters remained secure and referred questions to the FBI, which released limited details. It wasn’t immediately clear whether agents or officers were injured.

The agency’s secure campus in Langley, Virginia has served the agency since 1961. The complex is closed to the general public and only accessible to those with security clearances or by special arrangement. The CIA website offers virtual tours of 32 locations in the complex, from the outdoor cryptos sculpture with an encoded message to a bust of former President George HW Bush, who served as CIA director from January 1976 to January 1977. The complex was named after him in 1999.

Only last month a lone driver rammed officers in the Capitol when heavy security measures were put in place after the January 6 riot subsided on the premises. One officer died and another was injured.

Monday’s episode at CIA headquarters mirrored a 1993 campus shootout when a Pakistani man killed two CIA employees who had stopped in traffic outside the agency’s headquarters. The man, Mir Aimal Kasi, who also wounded three others, later said he was angry about the CIA’s activities in Pakistan and other Islamic nations. He was executed by lethal injection in 2002 after years of evading law enforcement in Pakistan. Virginia has since abolished the death penalty.