April 14 coronavirus news

Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins shortstop Andrelton Simmons has tested positive for Covid-19 after refusing to be vaccinated against the virus.

In late March, Simmons said in a tweet, he would not be getting or advocating for the vaccine due to “personal reasons and past experience.” 

Simmons is currently experiencing “very mild symptoms” and is resting comfortably at home, according to the Twins’ president of baseball operations Derek Falvey.

“We want to continue to educate people in the environment. This is real. This is something that can enter. We know that,” Falvey said on Wednesday. “Sometimes no one really knows exactly how it can come at different times. We know that from looking not just across our sport, but across all sports and across the country and the world. Our view of that is constantly reminding people of why we think it’s a good idea to get vaccinated. Our docs have recommended that, and so we continue to provide them as resources to players, to learn as much as they can about this.”

Simmons was notified of the positive test after Tuesday’s game against the Boston Red Sox and was placed on the Covid-19 protocol list before Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Red Sox.

Falvey added, “We’re not out of the woods by any means on that front. Now is the time to be as vigilant as possible.”

The pause on the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine will allow researchers to investigate a potential link to severe blood clotting events, particularly whether certain populations are more susceptible, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Wednesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA recommended a pause on use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine, following six reported US cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot.

“Many people have heard about blood clots as something that you get in your legs, maybe if nothing is done, they have the risk of spreading to your lungs,” Collins said at a virtual event hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research. “This is a different kind of blood clotting scenario, where there is an activation of the platelets in the body, so that they begin to clot in various places. Most dangerously, this happens in the cerebral venous sinuses inside the skull.”

Collins said that individuals who experience this kind of event have extremely low platelet counts, “because they’ve essentially been consumed.”

Collins noted that the concerns are similar to those raised with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which also uses an adenovirus vector platform.

“Some possibility here that it’s something about the vector that in a very rare individual sets off this cascade,” he said. “We need to figure this out.”

More context: The cases of severe blood clots after vaccination with the J&J vaccine in the US were all among women. Collins noted that the pause will allow researchers to investigate whether particular populations are more susceptible and should perhaps not take the vaccine.

He assured people that the pause will not set back the vaccination effort in the US.

“In fact, the J&J vaccine supply was the smallest of the three and was not going to be particularly critical to get us to the point where everybody would have vaccine access by the end of May, or certainly by June,” Collins said.

Nearly 195 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The CDC reported that 194,791,836 total doses have been administered, about 78% of the 250,998,265 doses delivered. 

That’s about 2.5 million more doses reported since yesterday, for a 7-day average of about 3.3 million doses per day. 

By the numbers: About 37% of the US population – nearly 124 million people – have received at least one dose of vaccine, and about 23% of the US population – about 76.7 million people – are fully vaccinated, CDC data showed.

Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ended an emergency meeting Wednesday without voting on changing any recommendations for Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine.

Members of the committee said they did not have enough information to recommend changes in their recommendations, or even to suggest extending a pause in administering the vaccine.

The CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration recommended Tuesday that the United States pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The vaccine has been linked, but not definitively, to cases of rare blood clots.

On Wednesday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices heard details of six known cases of a rare type of blood clot called CVST found in combination with a low level of key blood-clotting cells. The condition is tricky to treat and doctors are warned not to use typical blood thinners to treat it.

They also heard about a possible seventh case, and heard details of one case in a volunteer during trials of the vaccine – a case that J&J initially said was not linked to the vaccine.

ACIP staff said they would look for a time that the committee could meet again quickly so the vaccine is not unnecessarily delayed if they decide it’s safe to continue giving it.

“We will find a time to reconvene,” ACIP executive secretary Dr. Amanda Cohn told the meeting. “We will try to identify what that date is by Friday of this week so that people have a little bit more time to get it on the calendars.”

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signaled Wednesday they may not be ready to vote on whether to revise their recommendations on who should get Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices held an emergency meeting to decide on whether to recommend extending a pause on giving the vaccine while investigators check into a possible link with rare blood clots. They may also be asked to vote on whether to recommend limits on who gets vaccinated based on age or sex.

But members said they may not know enough yet to make such recommendations.

“I do not want to vote on this issue today. I do not want to vote not to recommend the vaccine — I think that is not really something I necessarily believe,” Dr. Beth Bell, a clinical professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, said during the meeting.“I just don’t feel there’s enough information to make an evidence-based decision. We won’t have all the information, but I think there are some things that we can gather relatively quickly, which all have to do with the benefit/risk balance.”

“We do need to better understand the risk, which we know is going to be very rare, very low, but we really don’t know exactly how low and how to correctly characterize it,” Bell added. “I think we need to not vote and gather the necessary information so we can make an evidence-based decision.”

More context: The group has a scheduled meeting in three weeks – on May 5, or could schedule another emergency meeting in a week or two.

But Dr. Nirav Shah, director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention and representative for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), said waiting was equally bad.

“We in a situation where not making a decision is tantamount to making a decision,” said Shah.

Shah said people who could benefit from getting a one-dose vaccine would go unvaccinated as a result of further delay.

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could be asked to decide whether to recommend extending the pause on giving out Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is holding an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss cases of rare blood clots that may or may not be linked with J&J’s coronavirus vaccine.

They will be asked whether to modify their recommendations for the vaccine, the CDC’s Dr. Sara Oliver said. They may also be asked to consider a recommendation to extend the pause in administering vaccines.

“This could potentially allow for a more informed, specific recommendations for the Janssen vaccine,” Oliver told the meeting. The committee may recommend giving the vaccine only to certain age groups, since most cases appear to be among people under the age of 50, or perhaps only to men, as most cases of the rare blood clots have been among women.

“We could evaluate the risk by age, an informed possible age based recommendation. It would also allow for further assessment to see if the thrombocytopenic thrombotic risk extends beyond CVST cases,” she added. 

The concerning cases involve a rare type of blood clot, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), that is found in combination with a condition known as thrombocytopenia – a low level of important blood clotting cells called platelets.

“However extension of the pause could have broad consequences. Individuals may want to receive the Janssen vaccine. In addition, a pause could have global implications, such as pausing clinical trials or limiting the ability of the Janssen vaccine in other countries with more limited vaccine supply,” Oliver said.

The ACIP will vote later Wednesday on its recommendations.

CDC vaccine advisers met today to review “rare and severe” blood clot cases among a small number of people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Officials say there were six cases among more than 6.8 million Americans who received the vaccine. The FDA and CDC have recommended pausing use of the vaccine while it is being reviewed.

CNN was live earlier today, answering your questions about the vaccine pause. Watch more:

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Headache appears to be the main symptom among the six women who developed blood clots after receiving a Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, vaccine safety lead with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 Response Team, said during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday.

“The important thing to note here is the initial features are largely kind of nonspecific symptoms, which at initial presentation – or when a patient starts to become symptomatic – may seem kind of mild and not that clinically significant. Things like headaches, lethargy, chills, myalgia,” Shimabukuro said. “Later features include severe headache, some focal signs, in one case severe abdominal pain, bruising, swelling in the lower extremities.”

Shimabukuro referred to the six cases and said that “if you look at five of these six cases, really headache is the initial presenting feature and so I do think it’s important in the setting where we are right now that health care providers maintain a high index of suspicion for possible CVST and confirm vaccination history among other things.”

CVST refers to cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, which involves clotting in veins that drain blood from the brain. Shimabukuro noted that four of the six patients were treated with the anticoagulant drug heparin, but heparin is not the recommended treatment for this particular type of rare blood clot, which is accompanied by a low level of a blood clotting cell known as platelets. Heparin is a blood thinner and giving it to people with low platelet counts could cause hemorrhaging.

Among the six patients, Shimabukuro said that one has died, three remain hospitalized – among which two are in intensive care, and two have been discharged home.

Remember: The CDC and FDA recommend the US pause the vaccine after six reported blood clot cases among more than 6.8 million doses of the vaccine administered in the US. The majority of people who took the vaccine are fine. Mild headaches and flu like symptoms are common after taking the vaccine – and mean it’s working. However, if you are concerned or have severe side effects you should contact your health provider.

Some patients who developed blood clots after receiving a Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine received the wrong treatment at first, a company representative told an emergency meeting of federal vaccine advisers Wednesday.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine issues, heard details of the six known cases of rare blood clots among about seven million people who got the vaccine in the US, plus a seventh suspected case. 

At least four of the six cases were treated with heparin when they first developed symptoms, Dr. Aran Maree, chief medical officer for pharmaceuticals at J&J’s Janssen vaccine arm, told the meeting. 

He gave details of what’s known about the cases, which include: a 45-year-old woman who died; a 38-year-old woman who has not recovered; an 18-year-old woman who has not recovered; a 48-year-old woman who has not recovered, a 26-year-old woman who has recovered and a 28-year-old woman whose status is unknown. They also include a possible seventh case – a 59-year old woman who has not yet recovered and whose blood clots might not fit the same profile as the others.

Heparin is not the recommended treatment for this particular type of rare blood clot, which is accompanied by a low level of a blood clotting cell known as platelets. Heparin is a blood thinner and giving it to people with low platelet counts could cause hemorrhaging.

The recommended pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine due to potential blood clots may be helpful in improving long-term trust in vaccine rollout, an infectious disease expert said Wednesday. 

“I think it’s really important to understand that the FDA has not pulled the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the market, that the Emergency Use Authorization still stands,” Dr. Céline Gounder, assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the New York University School of Medicine, told the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee. “This is just a pause, a timeout for the scientists to step back and review the data.”

Gounder said that one of the biggest motivators of vaccine hesitancy is a lack of trust in the systems rolling out vaccines, and that this pause shows health care and government systems working as intended. 

“It is absolutely essential that the CDC and FDA behave in a way that is transparent, honest, aboveboard, where they show they’re doing their due diligence, because that is really what is going to predict, in the longer term, whether people feel comfortable getting vaccinated.”

At least one vaccine trial volunteer also developed unusual blood clots after getting Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine, a top official for the company said Wednesday. 

Dr. Aran Maree, chief medical officer for J&J’s vaccine arm Janssen, said blood clots were seen in two patients in Phase 3 vaccine trials – one who got vaccine and one who was given a placebo shot. 

Maree also detailed a seventh possible case to an emergency meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

There was one case of the concerning type of blood clot, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), in September, during the Phase 3 trial of the single-dose vaccine, Maree said. It involved a 25-year-old white man who has recovered. Plus, a 59-year-old woman developed a series of blood clots known as deep vein thromboses or DVTs. 

The company is looking for more possible cases, Maree said.

“There is also an ongoing study, a large open label study, in South African health care professionals. This has enrolled currently, 272,438 participants,” Maree said. “We have had no reports of CVST. We have had one case of pulmonary embolism.”

A pulmonary embolism is a blood clot in the lung.

Johnson & Johnson is reviewing all reports of adverse events associated with its coronavirus vaccine to see if there are any more cases of rare blood clots that may not have been noticed, a top company official said Wednesday.

Dr. Aran Maree, chief medical officer for pharmaceuticals at J&J’s Janssen vaccine arm, detailed the known cases of blood clots for an emergency meeting of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers.

“I’d like to reiterate that based on the current data, Janssen believes the overall benefit-risk profile for our vaccine is positive across the population for which it’s authorized,” Maree said.

“We strongly support ensuring awareness of the signs and symptoms of this very rare event, as well as recommendations to ensure the correct diagnosis, treatment, and reporting by healthcare professionals,” Maree added.

CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is reviewing the reports of blood clots to determine whether to change guidance on the use of the Janssen vaccine.

Spain has received its first 146,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against Covid-19 and will use them in shots as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approves the vaccine’s safety, Health Minister Carolina Darias said Wednesday. 

Spain hopes the EMA’s decision will be favorable for this vaccine, Darias told a media conference. 

This came a day after two top US government health agencies recommended a pause in its use following reports of six cases of “rare and severe” blood clots out of almost seven million shots given. That prompted an urgent review by the EMA. 

Darias also said that Spain will receive “four to five million doses more” than expected of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid vaccine in the second quarter this year, after the European Union announced Wednesday announced millions more Pfizer doses for the 27-nation bloc. 

“The vaccines are safe and are saving lives,” Darias said, after meeting with health officials from Spain’s 17 regional governments, which administer the vaccines. “It’s also our most potent tool for economic recovery,” she added. 

It’s not yet clear whether blood clots seen after people got the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are the same, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expert said Wednesday. 

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was holding an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss whether to update its recommendations for use of the vaccine, made by J&J’s Janssen.

The CDC and US Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause in giving the Janssen vaccine after six cases of rare blood clots were seen in people recently given the vaccine in the US.

Similar blood clots were seen in Europe and the UK after people got AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which is not authorized in the US. Both vaccines use common cold viruses called adenoviruses to carry genetic material from the coronavirus into the body and elicit immunity.

“The extent to which the cases seen after each of these adenoviral vector vaccines represent exactly the same syndrome is not entirely clear at this time,” the CDC’s Dr. Beth Bell told the meeting.

Countries should continue using the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, as well as all vaccines authorized by the World Health Organization, even as regulatory agencies are reviewing the latest information about adverse events, Dr. Carissa Etienne, WHO’s regional director for the Americas, said during a virtual media conference on Wednesday. 

“In the meantime, it is important to continue to administer AstraZeneca vaccines where they are available. Almost 200 million people around the world have received AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, and the reports of adverse effects are very rare,” said Etienne, the director of the Pan American Health Organization.

Reports of blood clots among individuals “revealed by strong vaccine surveillance systems are now being reviewed by regulatory agencies,” Etienne said. “We expect additional recommendations soon.” 

The four vaccines authorized by WHO – the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the two versions of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, including one made by the Serum Institute of India – “are already helping to prevent severe disease and deaths in places where they are in use,” said Etienne. 

“These vaccines can save your lives and the lives of your friends and family,” she said. “Covid is actively spreading throughout our regions. Remember, none of us are safe until we are all safe.” 

Turkey reported at least 279 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours — the highest fatalities in a day since the start of the pandemic – as the number of daily cases hit an all-time record of 62,797, according to the Turkish health ministry. 

Turkey entered a partial lockdown announced by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday. The new measures include an extended nighttime curfew, restrictions on intercity travel, limited work hours for government employees and work from home incentives for the private sector. 

Turkey’s intensive care unit capacity is at 68.8%, according to the health ministry. The Turkish Doctors Association (TTB) has warned that there is a strain on hospitals and have called for stricter measures.  

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has started its meeting to discuss the safety of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.

The vaccine has been linked to six cases of a rare but dangerous blood clot, out of nearly seven million doses given.

ACIP, an independent panel that advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccine safety and administration issues, will discuss potential changes to recommendations for use of the vaccine.

The meeting will run from about 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. ET, with a vote scheduled after 3.30 p.m. ET.

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss what’s known about the safety of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine after federal regulators recommended a pause.

The vaccine, made by J&J’s Janssen vaccine arm, has been associated with six cases of a rare type of blood clot among about 7 million doses given out in the US.

The US Food and Drug Administration and CDC are looking to see if the vaccine may actually cause the blood clots, and also to brief doctors on how to diagnose and treat them. The blood clot that has been detected cannot be safely treated with blood thinners, as most common blood clots are.

The meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. ET and after a discussion, committee members are expected to vote on potential updates to recommendations for use of the vaccine at 3:30 p.m. ET.

CDC staff and a representative of Janssen will speak during the meeting.

Sweden will pause the distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine pending a safety investigation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Public Health Agency of Sweden announced in a statement on Wednesday.

“We are now awaiting the EMA’s investigation and also information from the USA, before we can take a position on the recommendations in Sweden for the Janssen vaccine. Until then, the recommendation is to not use the vaccine doses,” said state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, referring to the vaccine by the name of J&J’s vaccines division.

According to the statement, Sweden had received 31,000 doses of the vaccine so far, although none had been distributed yet.

In a media release on Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency said it “remains of the view that the benefits of the vaccine in preventing Covid-19 outweigh the risks of side effects.” 

The agency, which is in charge of verifying the safety of vaccines for the European Union, also said they are still assessing the “very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low platelets” with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the “EMA is expediting this evaluation and currently expects to issue a recommendation next week.”

On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration recommended that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine over six reported US cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot.

The recommended pause on Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine in the United States after reports of blood clots means the vaccine safety system is working, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. 

“I want to share with you my confidence in the system that we have in place. Jointly, CDC and FDA were able to identify these rare events, and act quickly to alert health care providers and the public,” Walensky said in a White House Covid-19 Task Force briefing on Wednesday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the identification of an issue and the response that followed should reassure people who might be hesitant to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

“It should reinforce in those individual how we take safety so seriously,” Fauci said during the briefing. “So as opposed to looking at this as a negative safety issue, it could be looked at as a positive issue, where they know that when we let a vaccine be available, and give it a go-ahead to be put into the arms of the American people, we do it with a considerable degree of confidence as to its safety.”

CDC director discusses Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause: 

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Cities in Michigan account for nine of the 10 worst Covid-19 outbreaks in metropolitan areas, according to the latest COVID-19 Community Profile Report published by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the White House Covid-19 Team. 

Over the past seven days, the Detroit metro area has reported 581 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents – more than 25,000 total cases – the report shows, with some metro areas in Michigan reporting even higher per capita rates. That’s about four times higher than the national rate of 142 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, according to the federal data. 

Along with Detroit, eight other cities in Michigan are among the those with the 10 highest case rates per capita over the past week. 

The 10 worst Covid-19 outbreaks based on new cases per capita over the past week are: 

Jackson, Michigan Bay City, Michigan Flint, Michigan Detroit, Michigan Monroe, Michigan Midland, Michigan Peoria, Illinois Lansing, Michigan Saginaw, Michigan Grand Rapids, Michigan

The daily COVID-19 Community Profile Report includes key statistics for the states, counties and core-based statistical areas, which are metropolitan or micropolitan areas defined by the US Census Bureau. 

Michigan cities account for nine out of 10 highest per capita rates of new Covid-19 cases specifically in metropolitan areas. However, some smaller micropolitan areas in northwest Texas – each with a population of less than 25,000 people – have higher per capita rates of new Covid-19 cases, including Borger, Levelland and Pampa, Texas. 

The latest publicly available report was published Wednesday. 

The White House sought to highlight efforts aimed at combating the challenge of vaccine hesitancy Wednesday, something that officials have privately told CNN is a mounting concern after a pause in Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

“Building vaccine confidence and increasing access to vaccination is central to our efforts,” White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said at Wednesday’s Covid briefing.

Citing a $3 billion investment to help states and vaccines build vaccine confidence, particularly in high-risk communities, Zients said the administration is taking steps toward getting “fact-based messaging and resources into the hands of trusted, local messengers.”

Officials have previously expressed the importance of combating vaccine hesitancy through local doctors and faith leaders, who could be more effective messengers for uncertain Americans than political figures or celebrities.

Zients also noted the administration’s commitment to making data on the state of the pandemic publicly available, suggesting that the J&J announcement should instill confidence rather than inject fear.

“Yesterday’s action should give the American people confidence in the FDA and CDC, the thoroughness of the review process, and their commitment to transparency and protection of public health. We believe that by empowering Americans with data and facts, we will strengthen the public’s trust in government, and increase their confidence in the vaccine,” Zients said.

Watch:

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US intelligence agencies still do not know “exactly where, when, or how COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially” but remain focused on two alternative theories, that “it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident,” the nation’s top spy told Senate lawmakers on Tuesday.

That admission from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines came during the so-called world wide threats hearing and her testimony is consistent with an intelligence community statement from almost a year ago that said it has not determined “whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”

“It is absolutely accurate the intelligence community does not know exactly where, when, or how COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially, and basically components have coalesced around two alternative theories, these scenarios are it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals, or it was a laboratory accident,” Haines told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

CIA Director William Burns, who also appeared alongside other intelligence agency leaders Tuesday, that he agreed with Haines’ remarks and added that it is clear to analysts “the Chinese leadership has not been fully forthcoming or fully transparent in working with the WHO who were providing the kind of original complete data that would help answer those questions.”

“We’re doing everything we can, using all the sources available to all of us on this panel to try to get to the bottom of it,” he added.

National Security Agency director and head of US Cyber Command Gen. Paul Nakasone noted that US cyber agencies are aiding that effort and continue to gather and analyze information around the virus’ origins.

Leaving middle seats vacant on airplanes can significantly reduce a passenger’s risk of being exposed to the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, a new modeling study suggests.

The risk of being exposed to the virus may be reduced by 23% to 57% on single-aisle and twin-aisle aircraft when middle seats are vacant compared with a full occupancy flight, according to the study published on Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers from the CDC and Kansas State University used laboratory models to simulate how much exposure to virus particles could be reduced when middle seats are kept vacant in an aircraft cabin. 

The models were based on the spread of bacteriophage aerosols used as a surrogate to estimate the airborne spread of the coronavirus. Bacteriophages are viruses that can infect bacteria. The analysis did not measure the impact of wearing masks, which is currently required on flights, but the researchers noted that some virus aerosol can still be emitted from an infectious masked passenger and so distancing could still be useful.

The models suggested that, with vacant middle seats, risk reduction ranged from 23%, which was observed for a single passenger who was in the same row but two seats away from an infectious passenger, to 57%, observed when middle seats were vacant across a section of three rows containing a mix of people with Covid-19 and other passengers.

“When the infectious and other passengers who would have had middle seats were removed, leaving six infectious passengers out of 12 total passengers remaining in the window and aisle seats, a 57% exposure reduction was observed,” the researchers wrote in their study.

Overall, “it is important to recognize that the current study addresses only exposure and not transmission,” the researchers wrote. More research is needed to determine the risk of the virus possibly being transmitted and causing illness.

Federal allocations of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for next week are about 7% higher than they were this week, according to federal data published Tuesday. 

For the week of April 19, about 5 million first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and about 3.7 million first doses of the Moderna vaccine have been made available for states and jurisdictions to order from, up from 4.7 million first doses of Pfizer/BioNTech and 3.5 million first doses of Moderna for the week of April 12.

Pfizer has boosted production of its Covid-19 vaccine and “can deliver 10% more doses to the US by the end of May than previously agreed,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a tweet Tuesday. 

Weekly allocations of vaccine that the federal government makes available to states and jurisdictions to order from are the second step in the supply process, following deliveries that manufacturers such as Pfizer make to the federal government. 

On Tuesday, the US Food and Drug Administration and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine while it undergoes review following six reported cases of rare, severe blood clots.

Federal allocations of the J&J vaccine have not been published for the week of April 19. The CDC told vaccinators by email on Tuesday that unfilled orders for the J&J vaccine would not be filled and no new orders would be accepted. 

Earlier weekly allocations of the J&J vaccine have been irregular, most recently dropping from about 5 million doses for the week of April 5 to 700,000 doses for the week of April 12.

These fluctuations in the J&J vaccine supply have led to some inconsistency in total vaccine allocations from the federal government in recent weeks, though total vaccine allocations for the week of April 19 are expected to be relatively steady compared to the week of April 12. 

The European Medicines Agency “remains of the view that the benefits of the vaccine in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects,” the Amsterdam-based European Union medicines regulator said in a media release on Wednesday.

The agency, which is in charge of verifying the safety of vaccines for the European Union also said it is still assessing the “very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low platelets” with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“EMA is expediting this evaluation and currently expects to issue a recommendation next week,” the agency said. “EMA is investigating all the cases reported and will decide whether regulatory action is necessary. The Agency is working closely with the US FDA and other international regulators” they pointed out.

Some background: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration yesterday recommended that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine following reports of several cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot. The six reported cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States.

Johnson & Johnson also announced yesterday that it was pausing deliveries of its single-dose vaccines to the European Union that had started on Monday. A delivery of 200 million doses to the EU has been scheduled for the second quarter of this year.

France will administer the 200,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine it has received, according to the French government spokesperson.

Denmark has removed the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from its vaccination program, saying it is not needed because the country has already reached “such an advanced point” in its vaccine rollout.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Danish Health Authority said all booked vaccines from AstraZeneca would be cancelled.

“We are basically in agreement with EMA’s assessment regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine. That is why it is important to emphasise that it is still an approved vaccine [in Europe]. And I understand if other countries in a different situation than us choose to continue using the vaccine,” Director General of the Danish Health Authority, Søren Brostrøm, said.

The Danish Health Authority paused the use of AstraZeneca on March 11 and the Danish vaccination effort has continued with the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

“If Denmark were in a completely different situation and in the midst of a violent third outbreak, for example, and a healthcare system under pressure – and if we had not reached such an advanced point in our rollout of the vaccines – then I would not hesitate to use the vaccine, even if there were rare but severe complications associated with using it,” Brostrøm said.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, the Danish Medicines Agency and its National Board of Health presented the results of their investigations around AstraZeneca and the consequences they will have for the Danish vaccination program.

“It is our decision to continue the rollout of vaccinations in Denmark without AstraZeneca,” Brostrøm said, who went on to call the 60-year-old Danish woman who died after being vaccinated with AstraZeneca, “very tragic”.

Earlier in the month, the European Medicines Agency concluded that the benefits of using the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine continue to outweigh the risks. The Danish Health Authority says it agrees with general findings of EMA and that the possible benefits of AstraZeneca in combating the Covid-19 pandemic continue to outweigh the risk of serious adverse events.

Brostrøm said the AstraZeneca vaccine had not been completely scrapped, but that the vaccine has been deselected due to “the specific, Danish context”.

Brostrøm went on to call it “a milestone” that “we have now reached 1,000,000 vaccinated Danes” and said confidence in vaccines is important. “When you vaccinate en masse, it is important to have a high level of support and trust in the vaccines,” he said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration yesterday recommended that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine following reports of several cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot.

The CDC will hold an emergency meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at 1:30 p.m. ET today to review the blood clot cases. While we wait for that meeting to start, here’s what we know so far:

France will administer the 200,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine it has received, according to the French government spokesperson Wednesday.

“200,000 doses arrived at the beginning of the week and they are being sent to doctors and pharmacies,” Gabriel Attal said during a news conference.

“It will be administered to people over the age of 55, the same way AstraZeneca is,” he added.

On Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson unilaterally announced that it was pausing deliveries of its single-dose vaccines to the EU, which were scheduled to start this week, following cases of “an extremely rare disorder involving people with blood clots in combination with low platelets in a small number of individuals.”

The US CDC and FDA recommended yesterday a pause of the vaccine over blood clot concerns “out of an abundance of caution.” Six reported blood clot cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the vaccine administered in the US.

Attal also expressed confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine. 

“There are indeed cases of blood clots that have been detected but they are extremely rare and are infinitely less important than the protection provided by this vaccine,” Attal said.

“I reiterate our choice to continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca, which is one of the essential elements in our vaccination campaign”.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is only a pause – not a cancellation – and he doubts it will extend for weeks to months.

On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and US Food and Drug Administration recommended that the US pause use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine over six reported cases or “a rare and severe type of blood clot” reported in the US.

Speaking on CNN’s New Day program on Wednesday, Fauci said: “There’s a twofold reason: one for an abundance of caution of safety, take a quick look, get more details, but also a heads up to the physicians out there that if you see these kinds of cases, don’t treat them with heparin. There are other modalities of treatment that could be used.”

The pause, in his mind, should “underscore and confirm how seriously we take safety, even though it’s a very rare event.” 

Fauci told CNN that he had no reason to believe that there were many more cases, but that the pause is there to take a look to see if there are any other cases.

“If anyone’s got a doubt that they may not be taking safety very seriously, I think this is an affirmation that safety is a primary consideration when it comes to the FDA and the CDC,” he said. “That’s why it was done and that’s why it’s a pause.”

After speaking to the CDC and the FDA, Fauci said that he thinks it’s “very likely to be more days to weeks than weeks to months. I doubt very seriously if we’re talking about weeks to months.” 

On the larger issue of vaccine hesitancy, Fauci said that while the wait-and-see approach is “understandable,” there is enough data in favor of vaccines.

“Over 120 million – close to 130 million people have already received at least one dose of this. That’s a lot of people. How long do you want to wait and see? You have almost half the country who’s received at least one dose. I think we’ve had enough wait and see. Let’s do it,” he said.

And as more people get vaccinated, Fauci also said that deaths from the virus will continue to decline – even though cases may rise.

“The most vulnerable, to the extent of the relative proportion, are protected,” he said. “As we get more and more people – 3 million to 4 million people per day vaccinated – the vaccine component of this is going to get stronger and stronger, and then you’re going to see the cases come down.”

Listen to the interview with Dr. Fauci on CNN:

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03:20 - Source: cnn

A major UK trial to examine whether different coronavirus vaccines can safely be used for two-dose regimens has now been expanded to include the Moderna and Novavax vaccines, with results expected to be reported in a matter of months.

The Oxford Vaccine Group’s Com-Cov study started in February and is the world’s first to examine whether different coronavirus vaccines can safely be used in the two-dose vaccination program.

The study to mix and match Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for first and second doses moved into its second stage on Wednesday, and will now expand to offer a combination of the four different vaccines including Moderna and Novavax.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Wednesday, Matthew Snape of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator of the Com-Cov study said the results of the trial could be available by the summer – although no firm date has been released.

“There’s some hints from studies that have been done in mice that the combinations of vaccines might actually give a better immune response overall, which would obviously be better,” he said.

The study, funded by the UK government’s Vaccine Task Force and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), will look at people from the age of 50 who’ve already had their first dose of vaccine.

More than 800 people have taken part in the research so far and have received two doses of either Pfizer, AstraZeneca or a mix of both.

Snape told the BBC that the findings could have a huge impact on the vaccine rollout across the world.

The research, described as a single blind study, doesn’t allow the vaccine brand to be disclosed to either the participants receiving the shot or the scientists monitoring the results, who will use blood tests to look for immune responses.

Subjects can visit one of nine study sites across England, with the organizers pushing to recruit people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and those with pre-existing conditions.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently warns Covid-19 vaccines are not interchangeable. “We don’t want people to just start mixing and matching with whatever is easiest to get,” said CDC medical officer, Dr. Sarah Mbaeyi during the CDC Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity call in March. 

The CDC currently recommends a two dose series for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and advises that vaccines should only be mixed and matched in “exceptional situations.”

The rollout of the Moderna vaccine in the UK started in April. The Novavax vaccine is currently under review by the UK Medicines Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

London’s Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s biggest, is expecting a patchy reopening of international travel this summer.

Speaking at a European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation event on Wednesday, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “I think over the summer we’re going to see quite a patchy reopening of international travel which I hope will progressively improve.”

The airport executive is pinning his hopes on a strong summer travel season, as Heathrow is currently burning through £5 million (approximately US $6.9 million) a day.

“Getting passengers back and flying for the summer is crucial for all of us… Until we get people flying again, we won’t have a business,” Holland-Kaye said.

Current Covid-19 restrictions in place mean that there are several critical bottlenecks in airports, as checks are carried out manually. 

“Just at Heathrow, even with only a handful of passengers arriving each day, there have been some days where we’ve had queues of up to 6 and a half hours… something needs to change,” said Holland-Kaye.

The airport is currently working closely with airlines, including British Airways, and the industry body IATA, to create a contactless journey throughout the airport.

Russian President Russian Vladimir Putin says he received his second shot of a Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday.

“Right now, just before entering this room, I also got the second vaccination [shot],” Putin said during a live videoconference at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society. 

Putin also expressed hope that the pandemic will soon subside and encouraged the public to follow his lead in taking up the vaccine.

“I hope that everything will be okay. Not even hoping - I’m sure of it. And [I] wish you the same, based on the fact that you, taking care of your close ones, will do the same and will follow my lead,” Putin said.

On March 23, the Russian leader received his first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine without releasing any images or video of the process – or revealing which vaccine he had taken.

The Kremlin said at the time that the type of vaccine that was used would not be publicized, but said that it was one of the approved Russian vaccines.

Russia became the first country in the world to approve a Covid-19 vaccine in August 2020 when it authorized the use of its homegrown vaccine, Sputnik V.

Read more on Putin’s vaccination here:

Related article Putin gets coronavirus vaccine behind closed doors

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a partial lockdown over the first two weeks of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan would be put into place from Wednesday.

The new restrictions, announced on Tuesday, come as the country continues to see a rise in coronavirus cases and deaths.

On Tuesday, Turkey reported 273 deaths and 59,187 new coronavirus cases over a 24 hour period –  marking a record daily high, according to the health ministry. 

Erdogan said under the partial lockdown:

If these tightened measures do not bring down the spread of the virus, stricter measures will be implemented, Erdogan added. 

The president also said intercity travel will be restricted, but did not provide specifics. 

A detailed list of new measures, which will go into effect on Wednesday, will be provided by the interior ministry, he said. 

The Mexican government announced the development of the Mexican-made Covid-19 vaccine named “Patria” in a press conference Tuesday. 

The vaccine development has already successfully passed preclinical studies in animals, and will begin clinical trials in humans in April, according to Mexico’s Director of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt).

The dose is based on a recombinant Newcastle virus, said Conacyt director Maria Elena Alvarez-Buylla.

She said that the vaccine was being developed as part of a “mixed investment strategy and collaboration between the Government of Mexico and the Mexican laboratory Avimex.”

The Avimex laboratory develops biological and pharmaceutical products for animal health.

Patria’s Phase I trial will begin in April with around 90 to 100 volunteers, Alvarez-Buylla said, with Mexico’s health regulator, Cofepris, expecting to have the results of that trial by May.
If human trials are successful, the Patria vaccine could be approved by the end of 2021. 

Conacyt has supported the development of the Mexican vaccine with 135 million pesos (nearly US $7 million) in addition to the 15 million pesos (US $700,000) contributed by the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, AMEXCID.

Mexico currently has six approved Covid-19 vaccines: AstraZeneca, CanSino, Covaxine, Pfizer, Sinovac, and Sputnik V.

The country has received 16.9 million coronavirus vaccine doses and has administered 12.2 million doses.

When 2020 Tokyo Olympics volunteers in recent weeks asked officials how they’ll be protected from Covid-19, given the foreign athletes pouring into Japan for the event and the country’s low vaccination rate, the answer was simple.

They’ll be given a small bottle of hand sanitizer and two masks each.

“They don’t talk about vaccines, they don’t even talk about us being tested,” said German volunteer Barbara Holthus, who is director of Sophia University’s German Institute for Japanese Studies, in Tokyo.

With 100 days to go until the Games, already postponed a year due to the pandemic, questions remain over how Tokyo can hold a massive sporting event and keep volunteers, athletes, officials – and the Japanese public – safe from Covid-19.

That concern has been amplified by Japan’s battle with a looming fourth wave. The country passed 500,000 total coronavirus cases on Saturday, and some prefectures are again tightening their restrictions as daily infections grow. Hideaki Oka, a professor at Saitama Medical University, said Japan may not be able to contain the latest wave before the Games begin on July 23.

While Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reiterated Monday his pledge to secure 100 million vaccine doses by the end of June, so far Japan has only vaccinated about 1.1 million of its 126 million people – less than 1% of the population. Only 0.4% have received two doses.

Read the full story:

A man wearing a protective mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walks near advertisement for Tokyo 2020 Olympics at an underpass Tuesday, April 6, 2021, in Tokyo. The Japanese capital confirmed more than 390 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Related article With 100 days until the Olympics, Japan has vaccinated less than 1% of its population

Global Covid-19 cases have climbed for seven consecutive weeks, according to a World Health Organization report citing data received on April 11.

WHO reported more than 4.5 million new cases and 76,000 deaths in the week ending on April 11. That’s a 7% increase in coronavirus deaths from the previous week, marking the fourth consecutive week of increasing deaths.

The highest numbers of new cases were reported in India, the US, Brazil, Turkey and France.

The numbers of countries reporting virus variants of concern is also increasing, WHO noted.

The B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the UK has now been found in 132 countries, the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa has now been found in 82 countries and the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil has now been found in 52 countries, according to the report.

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India reported 184,372 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest single-day figure since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from the Indian Ministry of Health.

That’s one of the world’s highest single-day case counts this week. To put that in perspective, the United States reported more than 77,000 cases on Tuesday and Brazil reported more than 82,000 – both far below India’s count, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The ministry also reported 1,027 additional related deaths, marking the first time India has reported more than 1,000 new daily deaths since October.

The new figures bring the country’s totals to 13,873,825 cases and 172,085 related deaths. 

Massive pilgrimage: Cases are on the rise in the city of Haridwar, in Uttarakhand state, where the month-long Kumbh Mela religious festival is taking place. Millions of Hindus from across the country have traveled to Haridwar to bathe in the Ganges River and attend prayers together.

Monday marked the first “auspicious” day of the festival, and up to 2.4 million people took a dip in the Ganges, police officials told CNN. The second bathing day kicked off on Wednesday, and the final one will take place on April 27.

Haridwar has seen more than 1,000 new cases in the past two days alone, according to figures released by the state health department. To put that in context, the city reported just 70 new cases on March 31, the day before the festival began.

New restrictions: Tough restrictions will go into effect Wednesday evening in the hard-hit Maharashtra state, lasting until May 1.

Public gatherings will be capped at four people. People are urged to work from home and follow a voluntary curfew. Only essential travel and services will be allowed across the state. Shopping centers, malls, film shoots and beaches will be closed, while hotels and restaurants will only be allowed to provide delivery and takeaway services.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday recommended the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine following reports of several cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot.

If you’re just reading in now, here’s what you need to know about the vaccine, the rare clots and what happens next: