Pfizer seeks authorization to vaccinate kids 5-11: COVID updates
Pfizer and BioNTech have requested federal regulators to authorize emergency use of their coronavirus vaccine for teenagers ages 5 to 11, the businesses introduced Thursday.
The Meals and Drug Administration and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention might want to log out on the vaccine earlier than it turns into out there to kids of these ages. An unbiased knowledgeable panel will overview the info Oct. 26.
“With new instances in kids within the U.S. persevering with to be at a excessive stage, this submission is a crucial step in our ongoing effort in opposition to #COVID19,” Pfizer tweeted. “We’re dedicated to working with the FDA with the final word objective of serving to defend kids in opposition to this severe public well being risk.”
Pfizer and its German vaccine associate released data from a clinical trial last month indicating their vaccine was secure and efficient for youngsters ages 5 to 11 at one-third of the dose given to adolescents and adults. The vaccine might be essential for elementary colleges, the place no college students have had entry to vaccination due to age limits.
The research of two,268 volunteers ages 5 to 11 confirmed they mounted the identical sort of sturdy immune response to the vaccine as teenagers and younger adults. As a result of the vaccine has already proved efficient in older teams, the businesses solely needed to present that it led to the same immune response in kids – reasonably than show it prevented COVID-19 infections.
Additionally within the information:
►Los Angeles leaders have accepted one of many nation’s strictest vaccine mandates, a sweeping measure that will require the pictures for everybody coming into bars, eating places, nail salons, gyms or sports activities occasions.
►Highschool weight rooms are being renovated and new soccer fields are getting constructed. The cash for these highschool sports activities tasks was a part of a $123 billion infusion supposed to assist colleges reopen and recuperate from the pandemic. However some districts have used large portions for athletics projects they could not beforehand afford.
►Well being authorities in Spain say the important thing 14-day an infection price of coronavirus instances per 100,000 folks has dropped under 50 for the primary time since July 2020, which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez known as “an important milestone.”
► A Texas man who posted on Fb that he paid somebody sick with COVID-19 to deliberately unfold the virus was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. He was discovered responsible on two counts for violating a federal regulation that criminalizes false info and hoaxes associated to organic weapons after pretending to have somebody unfold COVID-19 at a San Antonio grocery retailer.
►The World Well being Group is working to ship COVID-19 medical provides into North Korea, a potential signal that the North is easing one of many world’s strictest pandemic border closures to obtain exterior assist.
📈 At the moment’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded greater than 44 million confirmed COVID-19 instances and greater than 708,000 deaths, in line with Johns Hopkins University data. International totals: Greater than 236.6 million instances and 4.83 million deaths. Greater than 186.5 million People – 56.5% of the inhabitants – are absolutely vaccinated, in line with the CDC.
📘 What we’re studying: Faculties and fogeys are nonetheless burdened by COVID-19 instances, contact tracing and quarantines. Distant studying has returned in some instances. In others, children are again to sitting at house with out work. Not like final 12 months, most lecture rooms are open, however they function amid shifting well being suggestions and frequent fights over masks. When will college be regular once more? Many educators, mother and father and college students look previous the well being hurdles and say: By no means. Read more here.
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40% of People would possibly skip flu shot – a priority for public well being consultants
Greater than 4 in 10 People aren’t positive about or aren’t planning on getting a flu shot this 12 months, a brand new survey discovered, a development public well being consultants say may exacerbate a worse-than-average flu season. Final 12 months’s worries round a “twindemic” of influenza and COVID-19 overwhelming hospitals across the nation didn’t materialize due to a traditionally gentle flu season. However with COVID-19 vaccinations affording many individuals a return to extra “regular” lives of socialization and in-person work throughout flu season, hospitals and well being methods might be strained in elements of the nation the place vaccination in opposition to each viruses stays low, medical doctors say.
“We’re significantly involved as a result of COVID is on the market,” stated Dr. William Schaffner, medical director for the Nationwide Basis for Infectious Ailments. “Flu will come again this 12 months. And we do not need to additional stress our already very harassed well being care system.”
– Ryan W. Miller
Maryland man accused of killing pharmacist brother opposed vaccine
A Maryland man accused of killing his pharmacist brother and sister-in-law had expressed anger about the administering of COVID-19 vaccinations, in accordance to courtroom paperwork obtained by a number of media retailers. Jeffrey Burnham, 46, was arrested Friday in West Virginia after an 18-hour search. He was charged with killing his brother, Brian Robinette, 58, and sister-in-law, Kelly Sue Robinette, 57, at their house close to Baltimore.
Burham’s mom stated Burham informed her he deliberate to confront his brother concerning the coronavirus vaccine and that he believed it was the federal government’s try at “killing folks with the COVID-19 shot.”
– Scott Gleeson
White Home: Mandates shall be massive increase to vaccination marketing campaign
The White Home launched a report early Thursday on the consequences of vaccination necessities within the U.S., contending that mandating vaccines will result in thousands and thousands extra People getting pictures.
The report was launched forward of President Joe Biden’s journey to Chicago, the place he’ll meet leaders who applied vaccination necessities in private and non-private sectors, analyzed well being care methods, academic establishments, public-sector companies and personal companies. The report discovered that companies instituting vaccine necessities have seen their variety of absolutely vaccinated employees rise above 90%. Nationwide, 63% of adults 18-64 are absolutely inoculated.
“With out vaccination necessities, we face limitless months of chaos in our hospitals, additional detrimental impacts on our financial system, and anxiousness in our colleges,” the report reads. Based on the White Home evaluation, vaccine necessities have broad public assist and can assist increase the financial system by bringing employees again to the labor drive.
However a lot of Republican-led states have remained steadfast in opposing such necessities, going so far as punishing areas that try to enlist such directives.
‘Enormous second of pleasure’: Hospital system hits 99% vaccination price
The Detroit-based Henry Ford Well being System reported Tuesday that 99% of its workforce is compliant with its COVID-19 vaccination requirement. The determine means staff members are both absolutely vaccinated, on the best way to finishing a two-dose routine or have obtained an accepted medical or non secular exemption.
“It is a true testomony to Workforce HFHS and the way a lot our staff cares about your well being, the neighborhood’s well being, their very own well being and the well being of their teammates,” stated Bob Riney, president of Healthcare Operations and Chief Working Officer, throughout a briefing with reporters. “We’re actually grateful for his or her dedication.”
Colorado hospital: No vaccine, no transplant
A Colorado well being system is requiring “almost all” organ transplant patients to get vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 earlier than they obtain their transplant. UCHealth confirmed to USA TODAY that “in nearly all conditions, transplant recipients and dwelling donors” inside the system “are actually required to be vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 along with assembly different well being necessities.” For transplant sufferers who contract COVID-19, the mortality price can vary from 20% to over 30%, considerably increased than the final inhabitants, the well being system stated.
“These necessities improve the probability {that a} transplant shall be profitable and the affected person will keep away from rejection,” UCHealth stated in a press release.
– Marina Pitofsky
Kids of colour lose caregivers to COVID at alarming price
At the least 140,000 kids throughout the U.S. have misplaced a major or secondary caregiver to COVID-19, in line with a research revealed Thursday within the journal Pediatrics. The research highlights a pandemic-driven childhood disaster and its disproportionate influence. Researchers discovered kids of colour account for 65% of these orphaned from COVID-19 by June. That is greater than 91,000 kids of colour, in comparison with 51,000 white kids.
Hispanic kids have been twice as possible as white kids to lose a caregiver, and one in each 412 Hispanic kids misplaced no less than one, the research discovered. Indigenous kids, who had the best threat, have been nearly 5 instances extra possible; about 1 in each 168 Native American kids misplaced a caregiver.
The research’s lead writer, CDC epidemiologist Susan Hillis, known as the disparities “disturbing.” Read more here.
– Nada Hassanein
Mississippi hospitalizations excessive as colleges drop masks mandate
As coronavirus instances drop in Mississippi colleges, medical doctors warn kids contaminated with COVID-19 are nonetheless filling up the state’s solely pediatric hospital as some colleges are once more doing away with masks necessities.
Of 740 colleges reporting from 73 of Mississippi’s 82 counties, there have been greater than 800 new COVID-19 instances in Mississippi college students statewide from Sept. 27 by Oct. 1, according to the health department’s Tuesday report.
Some Mississippi colleges have begun to calm down masks mandates as neighborhood instances have began to say no. The American Academy of Pediatrics Mississippi Chapter wrote a Thursday memo to highschool leaders and fogeys saying mask-wearing in colleges is crucial to lessening COVID-19 transmission.
– Sarah Haselhorst, The Clarion Ledger
US invests one other $1 billion to ramp up at-home COVID-19 exams
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a new $1 billion investment in home coronavirus tests that can quadruple the nation’s provide of those speedy exams by early December, officers stated. The administration has secured commitments from take a look at producers to produce as much as 200 million house exams per 30 days by December, stated Jeff Zients, the White Home coronavirus response coordinator.
Final month, the Biden administration introduced it might spend practically $2 billion to buy about 280 million coronavirus house exams to produce long-term-care services, neighborhood testing websites, homeless shelters, prisons, jails and different facilities that serve weak populations. On Monday, the FDA approved ACON Laboratories’ Flowflex COVID-19 house take a look at, a transfer that will add tens of thousands and thousands of exams inside weeks, an FDA official stated.
– Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY
Girl who died after J&J vaccine was against vaccinations
A 37-year-old lady died Sept. 7 from a uncommon and extreme situation inflicting blood clots that has been linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Jessica Berg Wilson, a mom of two, was against COVID-19 vaccinations, in line with her obituary. Over the past weeks of her life, “the world turned darkish with heavy-handed vaccine mandates,” it reads. “Native and state governments have been decided to strip away her proper to seek the advice of her knowledge and luxuriate in her freedom.”
Three different deaths from the blood clots have been confirmed nationally. The CDC and FDA paused the J&J vaccine for 10 days in April to research, however ultimately lifted the pause and resumed use of the vaccine.
Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY; The Related Press