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U.S. officials this week changed the way they allocate vaccine doses to states and the CDC expanded the vaccine eligibility to try to speed the pace of the vaccine rollout. More on that below. Meanwhile, Ohio researchers say they've discovered two new variants of the virus. CNBC's Will Feuer has that story. Also this week, Operation Warp Speed's chief advisor was officially asked to step down at the request of the incoming administration.
| | Biden unveils sweeping plan to combat pandemic | President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping plan to combat the pandemic in the United States, massively scaling up testing to support school reopenings, creating more health-care jobs and investing billions in a nationwide Covid-19 vaccine campaign. The plan, summarized in a 19-page document released by the transition team this week, also includes investing in new treatments for Covid-19. Notably, the Trump administration earlier this week adopted Biden's idea to release most of the doses it had held back in reserve for the second round of shots of Pfizer's and Moderna's two-dose vaccines.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | | | Operation Warp Speed chief's tenure coming to an end | Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to the government's effort to speed development of vaccines for the pandemic, resigned from his post this week at the request of the incoming Biden team. He'll stay on for 30 days to help with the transition, but his role will be diminished after inauguration. How will his tenure be remembered? While some argue Pfizer's speedy success means Operation Warp Speed didn't make the difference, Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel told us "Moncef was instrumental. He set up the portfolio approach: three technologies, two companies per technology. He got the funding, he coordinated BARDA and NIH, he got FDA to issue clear guidelines."
-Meg Tirrell | | | | Seema Verma watched Capitol siege from her window | Seema Verma had a clear view of the attack on the Capitol from her window at the Department of Health. She was sickened by what she witnessed, and by the political attacks on her friend and mentor Vice President Mike Pence. Verma didn't say whether she blamed president Trump, but said resigning her position in the middle of the pandemic and presidential transition was unthinkable. In our "exit interview" she was surprisingly passionate about her record on running Obamacare, which the Trump administration had vowed to undo. Despite that, Verma argues she left the ACA marketplace in better shape than she found it.
-Bertha Coombs | | | | Ohio researchers say they've identified two new Covid strains | Researchers in Ohio say they've discovered two new variants of the coronavirus that likely originated in the U.S. — one of which quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-week period in late December and early January. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking over the research, which was published Thursday, from the Ohio State University right now. Dr. Dan Jones, vice chair of the division of molecular pathology at Ohio State and lead author of the study, said the U.S. should further increase its surveillance for more mutations. "We are now in a period where the virus is changing quite substantially," he said told reporters on a conference call.
-Will Feuer | | | | U.S. health officials make push for Covid antibody treatments | Coronavirus antibody treatments have the potential to keep the most at-risk coronavirus patients out of the hospital if given early enough in their infection, but the drugs are still underutilized in the U.S., top U.S. health officials said this week. The federal government has shipped more than half a million courses of the treatments produced by Regeneron and Eli Lilly, which are given to people through IV infusion. The problem is that many patients don't know how to access them, and hospitals aren't prescribing the medications or providing the infusion sites necessary to administer the drugs, they said. Some medical experts are concerned that there's not enough data to show they work, but members of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed said there's "real world" evidence that shows they're beneficial.
-Noah Higgins-Dunn | | | | New tech initiative to create secure Covid vaccine certification | If you've gotten a Covid vaccine, the only proof you have is a paper certificate showing you've got the shots. A new coalition of big tech companies including Microsoft and Salesforce have joined with health firms Cigna, Change Healthcare and the major electronic health records firms to create a secure electronic record that patients can use to verify their vaccine status. Think of it as a Vaccine Passport, which you'll probably need to travel or maybe even for some workplaces, to prove you're not a risk for Covid.
-Bertha Coombs | |
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