Germany records its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic
From CNN’s Fred Pleitgen and Claudia Otto in Berlin
A sign reminding people that masks are required in Hof, Bavaria is seen in front of the St. Marien church on December 10. Nicolas Armer/picture alliance/Getty Images
Germany on Friday announced it had recorded 598 coronavirus fatalities in the previous 24 hours, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute, the country's center for disease control.
It was Germany's highest single-day coronavirus death toll since the pandemic began.
The nation also registered a record 29,875 new confirmed infections on Friday -- roughly 6,000 more than the day before.
German lawmakers will meet in the coming days to tighten lockdown measures in a bid to get the surge in infections under control.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there are now 1,287,092 confirmed coronavirus infections in Germany, including 21,064 related deaths.
2:04 a.m. ET, December 11, 2020
Actor Thomas "Tiny" Lister Jr. dies at 62 after experiencing Covid-19 symptoms
From CNN's Sarah Moon
Thomas "Tiny" Lister Jr. attends the premiere of "Sister" during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival on April 25, 2014 in New York City. Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Actor and wrestler Thomas Lister Jr., also known as “Tiny,” was found dead in his home on Thursday after experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, his manager Cindy Cowan confirmed to CNN.
According to Cowan, the 62-year-old actor started feeling sick last Thursday, but his symptoms “got really bad, really quick.”
He couldn’t breathe and felt very weak, she said. “It literally went so fast," Cowan added.
Lister was supposed to visit a set for a new movie on Sunday, however he called Friday to cancel because he was feeling too weak and had a hard time breathing, according to Cowan.
“Tiny doesn’t miss movies; he took it very seriously,” said Cowan.
The actor then canceled plans for a panel scheduled on Wednesday for a TV festival via Zoom, according to Cowan. Calls to Lister also went unanswered.
According to a press release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, deputies responded to Lister’s Marina del Rey home on Thursday afternoon when “friends and business associates of Mr. Lister hadn’t heard from him since the night before and were concerned about his wellbeing.”
When deputies entered the home, they found Lister dead.
“Mr. Lister’s death appears to be of natural causes but will ultimately be determined by the Office of Medical Examiner-Coroner,” the sheriff’s department said.
The death is still under investigation, according to the release.
Lister was best known for his role as Deebo in the “Friday” movie franchise alongside rapper Ice Cube. He also appeared with Hulk Hogan in the World Wrestling Entertainment movie “No Holds Barred.”
1:24 a.m. ET, December 11, 2020
Business travel could bounce back in 2022, Emirates president says
From CNN's John Defterios and Stephanie Bailey
Tonnes of medical equipment and coronavirus testing kits provided by the World Health Orgnization are pictured passing by an Emirates airlines Airbus A380-861, at the al-Maktum International airport in Dubai on March 2. Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images
Few sectors have been hit as hard by the coronavirus pandemic as the aviation industry.
But Tim Clark, president of the Emirates airline, sees reason to be optimistic. He thinks business travel could bounce back in 2022.
Clark recently spoke with CNN's John Defterios about the recovery of business travel and Emirates' imminent role as a distribution center for future Covid-19 vaccines.
Here's what he had to say on when business travel will get back to normal:
"What has happened as a result of being locked down, as a result of having to engage in (online communication) networks, whether it be Zoom or (Microsoft) Teams, I saw it in the mid '90s, when we digitized the global economy and all these tools came to market. The digital world ruled, the age of information came along, and everybody said, 'you know what's going to happen? We're not really going to travel anymore,'" Clark said. "The converse happened. Between 1995, and 2015 to 2018, the demand for business travel grew exponentially. The more they (people) interacted, the more they traveled. As we get back to normal, as the economy is strengthened, as cash starts flowing back into the businesses that have been affected, we'll start to see business travel bounce back, and we'll see it grow. It will not slow down."
Australian Covid-19 vaccine trials ended after test subjects return false positive HIV results
From CNN's Ben Westcott, Angus Watson and Pauline Lockwood
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
An Australian-produced coronavirus vaccine candidate has been scrapped after trial participants returned false positive test results for HIV, developers announced Friday.
The inoculation, which had yet to progress beyond Phase 1 trials, was being jointly developed by the University of Queensland and Australian biotech company CSL.
Australia had hoped the vaccine would be available by mid-2021.
In a statement, CSL said no serious adverse effects had been reported in the 216 trial participants, and the vaccine was shown to have a "strong safety profile." However trial data revealed that antibodies generated by the vaccine interfered with HIV diagnosis and led to false positives on some HIV tests, CSL said.
If the vaccine was rolled out nationally, CSL said it could undermine public health in Australia by causing a wave of false positive HIV tests in the community.
"Follow-up tests confirmed that there is no HIV virus present, just a false positive on certain HIV tests. There is no possibility the vaccine causes infection," the statement added.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters Friday that the vaccine "will no longer feature as part of the country's vaccine plan." Australia had pre-emptively ordered 51 million doses of the CSL vaccine in October.
Morrison said Australia had backed four vaccines that showed promise but "at no stage ... believed that all four of those vaccines would likely get through that process."
US could be back to normal by next summer or fall, Fauci says -- provided everybody gets vaccinated
From CNN Health’s Shelby Lin Erdman
The United States could be back to normal by next summer or early fall if everyone gets a Covid-19 vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted Thursday.
"It depends how quickly and how many people want to get vaccinated," Fauci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. "If we have a smooth vaccination program where everybody steps to the plate quickly, we could get back to some form of normality reasonably quickly into the summer and certainly into the fall."
The US Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted to recommend emergency-use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine Thursday. The FDA is expected to approve an EUA for the vaccine in the next couple of days.
"My hope and my projection is that if we get people vaccinated en masse so that we get that large percentage of the population, as we get into the fall, we can get real comfort about people being in schools, safe in school," Fauci said. "That's what I hope and project we would do if we get everybody vaccinated."
8:17 a.m. ET, December 11, 2020
US FDA calls committee vote "an important step"
From CNN’s Jen Christensen
Stephen Hahn testifies during a US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine Covid-19 in Washington DC, on September 23. Graeme Jennings/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
The US Food and Drug Administration said Thursday’s vote by its vaccine advisers to recommend emergency use authorization of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine was an “important step” in the review process.
The FDA said its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, made up of independent scientists and public health experts, provided “valuable advice and input” for the agency to help make its decision.
“Importantly, the final decision about whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use will be made by FDA’s career officials,” the agency said in a statement.
“In this time of great urgency, FDA staff feel the responsibility to move as quickly as possible through the review process. However, they know that they must carry out their mandate to protect the public health and to ensure that any authorized vaccine meets our rigorous standards for safety and effectiveness that the American people have come to expect,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in the statement.
“The whole of the FDA — myself included — remains committed to keeping the public informed about the evaluation of the data of a potential Covid-19 vaccine, so that once available, Americans can have trust and confidence in receiving the vaccine for their families and themselves.”
11:59 p.m. ET, December 10, 2020
Canada will start vaccinations early next week as lockdowns fail to get infections under control
From CNN's Paula Newton
Justin Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister, speaks during a news conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on December 10. David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images
There was sobering news for Canadians Thursday as public health officials in several provinces said they were coping with an increase in infections despite new restrictions and lockdowns.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau underscored the need to keep up with public health protocols as he announced that vaccines would arrive in Canada by Monday.
“The first 30,000 doses are expected to arrive on Canadian soil in just a few days. To all Canadians, if you’re feeling relieved and hopeful, you’re not alone, this is the good news we all need but remember this is only the first step in what will be a massive project over a long winter,” said Trudeau during a news conference in Ottawa Thursday evening.
Canada is not disclosing logistics or tracking information on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as it enters the country because of what officials say are "credible" security concerns.
But Trudeau stressed he does not believe there will be any disruptions as the vaccines make their way from Belgium to Canada.
The timeline on vaccines in Canada comes as several provinces -- including Canada’s two largest, Quebec and Ontario -- logged record cases of Covid-19 in recent days, with officials saying lockdowns in both Toronto and Montreal are having little effect.
Ontario released new modeling Thursday and confirmed that according to mobility data throughout the province, people are traveling outside their homes at close to normal levels and likely not limiting contacts as much as needed to stop the spread of the virus.
Montreal broke a single-day record Thursday with 648 new cases of Covid-19, a growth rate the city’s public health director called "alarming."
“I know we’re all tired, but we need to make an effort,” said Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal’s public health director, during a news conference Thursday.
11:55 p.m. ET, December 10, 2020
Coronavirus model predicts 502,000 deaths in the US by April
From CNN's Shelby Lin Erdman
The influential coronavirus model at the University of Washington has projected 502,000 Americans will have died from Covid-19 by April 1, down from its prediction of 539,000 deaths last week.
The model from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts a new coronavirus vaccine can save 25,000 or more lives. And if 95% of Americans wore masks, the death count would drop by 56,000 by April 1 compared to the “most likely” scenario.
On the other hand, if states ease coronavirus mandates, the model projects 598,000 cumulative deaths by April 1.
“Moreover, the impact of vaccinations is greater as well because of the detailed information in the Pfizer FDA filing, showing approximately 50% protection after the first dose, and data on a larger number of doses available sooner in the US,” IHME said.
The model projects 25,200 lives will be saved by the vaccine rollout and if the distribution occurs rapidly, 44,500 lives could be saved compared to a no-vaccine scenario.
The Covid-19 epidemic in the Midwest is leveling off but is increasing on the West Coast and in the Northeast, IHME said.
8:18 a.m. ET, December 11, 2020
US FDA committee vote to recommend EUA for Pfizer’s vaccine is "important," Fauci says
From CNN's Shelby Lin Erdman
The vote by the US Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to recommend emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is important, Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
It shows the process in the US is based on decisions and recommendations made by independent bodies, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN.
“The reason I think this is so important is that we want to make sure that we impress the American public that decisions that involve their health and safety are made outside of the realm of politics, outside of the realm of self-aggrandizement and are made in essence by independent groups,” Fauci said. “So it was a very important step."
The next step is FDA consideration and decision about an EUA. Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will decide whether to recommend the vaccine for use. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has meetings scheduled for Friday and Sunday.
