Investigative reporter Brendan Kirby talks about major progress on vaccine, help with unemployment – FOX10 News

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) FOX10 News is committed to getting the facts about how the governments response to the coronavirus affects regular people.

Here is investigative reporter Brendan Kirby with Mondays installment:

QUESTION: Were all hoping for a vaccine. And theres some good news on that front Monday.

BRENDAN: Thats right. Its starting to look like we may get that vaccine sooner rather than later and probably from more than one company.

The latest development comes from Oxford University in London, where researchers reported that they have gotten positive feedback from a Phase I and II clinical trial that began in April. Those results have been published in The Lancet. A thousand healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55 volunteered, with half getting the vaccine and half getting a placebo.

The vaccine caused a T cell response within 14 days of getting the vaccination. This means white blood cells attacked cells infected with the novel coronavirus. And those subjects had an antibody response within 28 days. This means the antibodies are able to prevent the virus from infecting cells in the body.

That neutralizing activity occurred in the blood of 100 percent of participants. And more good news: There were no serious side effects associated with the vaccine.

Oxford is working with the drug company AstraZeneca for large-scale manufacture and distribution of the vaccine once it gets final approval.

Two other vaccines one by Pfizer and BioNTech, and one by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna have achieved similar results. Moderna is planning to start a Phase III trial later this month with 30,000 volunteers.

QUESTION: Now a question thats been perplexing since the beginning of the pandemic --- why the disease has disproportionately affected African-Americans. And now theres research that might point to a reason why.

BRENDAN: Thats right. Black people in Alabama have been more likely on a per capita basis both to contract the virus and die from it.

So far, 43 percent of lab-confirmed deaths from the novel coronavirus have been black, while African-Americans make up roughly a quarter of the population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published the new research. Researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin examined 178 COVID-19 cases from March 20 to May 21.

They concluded that people with sickle cell disease who get infected with the novel coronavirus have a high risk for severe outcomes and death.

The statistics show that patients known to have that condition have a 69 percent hospitalization rate, an 11 percent intensive care unit rate and a 7 percent mortality rate. This is particularly alarming given that the average age of this group was younger than 40. Those rates are significantly higher than the rates for all COVID-19 cases in that age range.

African-Americans are far more likely to have sickle cell disease, so this could be at least one explanation for why COVID-19 outcomes have been so much more severe for black Americans.

QUESTION: The unemployment rate continues to drop in Alabama, but there are still lots of people who havent gotten their claims straightened out, and now theyre getting messages telling them their claims are not valid.

BRENDAN: Thats right. The Alabama Department of Labor has tinkered with the process a little bit. But the way it works now is this:

First, you must file for regular unemployment at https://initalilclaims.labor.alabama.gov. If you dont have enough wages during the base period to qualify or you have previously been disqualified, you will be rejected.

But you may still qualify under the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act program known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. You can access that at https://pua.labor.alabama.gov. It is also on the Claim Tracker if you already are in the system. When you apply here, you will be asked a series of questions related to COVID-19.

Based on these questions, the state will determine if you qualify under the expansion passed by Congress to fight the pandemic.

The exact wording of those questions is left to each state. But federal law spells out who is covered and who is not.

QUESTION: And weve gone over that before, but lets remind people of those categories.

BRENDAN: There are 10 categories:

The other five categories are:

(If you have a #COVIDINFO question for investigative reporter Brendan Kirby, email him atBrendan.Kirby@fox10tv.com)

Original post:

Investigative reporter Brendan Kirby talks about major progress on vaccine, help with unemployment - FOX10 News