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Happy New Year.
Federal and state health officials are racing to distribute and administer as many Covid vaccines as possible to bring an end to the pandemic. Vaccinations got off to a slow start, but officials expect that to pick up in the coming weeks. More on that below. CNBC's Sam Meredith also has some promising news on Pfizer's vaccine.
| | U.S. vaccination pace off to slow start, but officials expect acceleration | Less than a third of vaccine doses delivered to states were administered this week , a pace falling woefully short of expectations. There were signs of progress later in the week, however, as public health experts like former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said mass campaigns often embody what he calls a "hockey stick phenomenon": a slow start, then fast pickup once effective systems are in place. National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins also expressed optimism for progress, benchmarking 1 million injections a day as a goal. At that pace, however, it would still take the U.S. more than a year to reach his goal of 80% of Americans vaccinated. Operation Warp Speed's leaders pledged to move faster.
-Meg Tirrell | | | | HHS secretary recommends states open Covid vaccinations to more people | The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recommended states open up Covid vaccinations to the elderly and other vulnerable groups even if they haven't vaccinated all of their health workers. "There is no reason that states need to complete, say, vaccinating all health-care providers before opening vaccinations to older Americans or other especially vulnerable populations," he told reporters. Officials are trying to pick up the pace of vaccinations after a slower-than-expected initial rollout. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends prioritizing health workers and nursing homes first, but individual states can distribute the vaccine as they see fit.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | | | CVS, Walgreens to finish first round of vaccinations in nursing homes by end of month | CVS Health and Walgreens announced earlier this week that they are on track to complete the first round of Covid vaccine shots at nursing homes across the country by Jan. 25. The federal government partnered with the two pharmacy chains to administer the shots to residents and staff in long-term care facilities. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are at the top of the priority list for the vaccine, along with health-care workers. The announcement by the two companies offered a bright spot in what's been a slower-than-expected rollout of the vaccines. Less than 1% of the U.S. population live in long-term care facilities, but they account for nearly 40% of all Covid-19 deaths in the country as of Dec. 31.
-Will Feuer | | | | While still rare, CDC study says Covid vaccine anaphylaxis runs higher than flu shot | A new study from the CDC found that people receiving Covid-19 vaccines experience anaphylaxis — a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction that rarely occurs after vaccination — at a rate 10 times higher compared with the flu vaccine. The condition is still thought to be rare, however, and the drugs from Pfizer and Moderna remain safe for public use, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a conference call. "Of course, we all would hope that any vaccine would have zero adverse events, but even at 11 cases per million doses administered, it's a very safe vaccine," Messonnier said.
-Noah Higgins-Dunn | | | | Pfizer vaccine appears to neutralize a key mutation of Covid variants | The Pfizer Covid vaccine, developed jointly with BioNTech, appears to be effective against a key mutation in the more infectious variants of the virus discovered in the U.K. and South Africa, according to a study conducted by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant. The research, published on preprint server bioRxiv and not yet peer-reviewed, suggested the vaccine worked to neutralize the so-called N501Y mutation. The N501Y mutation has been reported in the more infectious variants. It is altering an amino acid within six key residues in the receptor-binding domain — a key part of the spike protein that the virus uses to gain entry into cells within the body.
-Sam Meredith | |
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