Category Archives: Covid-19

The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunisation has issued Interim recommendations for the use of the Janssen Ad26.CoV2.S vaccine against COVID-19.

Here is what you need to know.

This article provides a summary of the interim recommendations; the interim recommendations and the background document are also available.

Who should be vaccinated first?

While COVID-19 vaccine supplies are limited, health workers at high risk of exposure and older people should be prioritised for vaccination.

Countries can refer to the WHO Prioritization Roadmap and the WHO Values Framework as guidance for their prioritization of target groups.

Who else can take the vaccine?

The vaccine is safe and effective in people with known medical conditions associated with increased risk of severe disease, such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, significant cardiac disease, obesity, and diabetes.

Persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease. This population group was included in clinical trials and no safety concerns were observed. It is recommended that known HIV-positive vaccine recipients be provided with information and counselling prior to vaccination. Further studies are needed to assess vaccine efficacy for persons with HIV; it is possible that the immune response to the vaccine may be reduced which would lower the vaccines effectiveness.

The J&J vaccine can be offered to people who have had COVID-19 in the past. But individuals may wish to defer their own COVID-19 vaccination for up to six months from the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection, to allow others who may need the vaccine more urgently to go first.

This vaccine can be offered to a breastfeeding woman who is part of a group recommended for the vaccination (e.g. health workers); discontinuing breastfeeding after vaccination is not currently recommended.

Should pregnant women be vaccinated?

While pregnancy puts women at higher risk of severe COVID-19, very little data are available to assess vaccine safety in pregnancy.

Pregnant women may receive the vaccine if the benefit of vaccinating a pregnant woman outweighs the potential vaccine risks.

For this reason, pregnant women at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (e.g. health workers) or who have comorbidities which add to their risk of severe disease, may be vaccinated in consultation with their health care provider.

Who is the vaccine not recommended for?

Individuals with a history of anaphylaxis to any component of the vaccine should not take it.

Anyone with a body temperature over 38.5C should postpone vaccination until they no longer have a fever.

The vaccine is not recommended for persons younger than 18 years of age pending the results of further studies in that age group.

Whats the recommended dosage?

SAGE recommends the use of Janssen Ad26.CoV2.S as one dose (0.5 ml) given intramuscularly.

There should be a minimum interval of 14 days between the administration of this vaccine and any other vaccine against other health conditions. This recommendation may be amended as data on co-administration with other vaccines become available.

How does this vaccine compare to the dual dose vaccines already in use?

We cannot compare the vaccines head-to-head due to the different approaches taken in designing the respective studies, but overall, all of the vaccines that have achieved WHO Emergency Use Listing are highly effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization due to COVID-19.

Is it safe?

SAGE has thoroughly assessed the data on quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine and has recommended its use for people aged 18 and above.

This vaccine has also undergone review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and found to be safe for use.

How efficacious is the vaccine?

28 days after inoculation Janssen Ad26.CoV2.S was found to have an efficacy of 85.4% against severe disease and hospitalisation.

A dose of Janssen Ad26.COV2.S was found in clinical trials to have an efficacy of 66.9% against symptomatic moderate and severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Does it work against new variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus?

SAGE has reviewed all available data on the performance of the vaccine in the settings of the variants of concern. In clinical trials this vaccine has been tested against a variety of SARS-CoV-2 virus variants, including B1.351 (first identified in South Africa) and P.2 (first identified in Brazil), and found to be effective.

SAGE currently recommends using this vaccine, according to the WHO Prioritization Roadmap, even if variants of concern are present in a country. As new data becomes available, WHO will update recommendations accordingly.

Does it prevent infection and transmission?

There is currently no substantive data available related to the impact of Ad26.COV2.S on transmission of virus that causes COVID-19 disease.

In the meantime, we must maintain and strengthen public health measures that work: masking, physical distancing, handwashing, respiratory and cough hygiene, avoiding crowds and ensuring good ventilation.

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The J&J COVID-19 vaccine: What you need to know - World - ReliefWeb

Heres what you need to know:Former President Donald J. Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence with Adm. Brett P. Giroir and Dr. Deborah Birx during a news conference at the White House in April 2020.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

In interviews broadcast on CNN Sunday night, former President Donald J. Trumps pandemic officials confirmed in stark and no uncertain terms what was already an open secret in Washington: The administrations pandemic response was riddled with dysfunction, and the discord, untruths and infighting most likely cost many lives.

Dr. Deborah L. Birx, Mr. Trumps coronavirus response coordinator, suggested that hundreds of thousands of Americans may have died needlessly, and Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the testing czar, said the administration had lied to the public about the availability of testing.

The comments were among a string of bombshells that emerged during a CNN special report that featured the doctors who led the governments coronavirus response in 2020.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accused Mr. Trumps health secretary, Alex M. Azar III, and the secretarys leadership team of pressuring him to revise scientific reports. Now he may deny that, but its true, Dr. Redfield said in an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNNs chief medical correspondent. Mr. Azar, in a statement, denied it.

Dr. Stephen K. Hahn, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said his relationship with Mr. Azar had grown strained after the health secretary revoked the agencys power to regulate coronavirus tests. That was a line in the sand for me, Dr. Hahn said. When Dr. Gupta asked him if Mr. Azar had screamed at him, Dr. Hahn replied: You should ask him that question.

But it was Dr. Birx, who has been pilloried for praising Mr. Trump as being so attentive to the scientific literature and for not publicly correcting the president as he made outlandish claims about unproven therapies, whose disclosures may have been the most compelling.

As of Sunday, more than 548,000 Americans have died from infection with the coronavirus. I look at it this way, she said. The first time, we have an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge.

All of the rest of them, she said, referring to almost 450,000 deaths, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially had the administration acted more aggressively.

In what was one of her first televised interviews since leaving the White House in January, she also described a very uncomfortable, very direct and very difficult phone call with Mr. Trump after she spoke out about the dangers of the virus last summer. Everybody in the White House was upset with that interview, she said.

After that, she decided to travel the country to talk to state and local leaders about masks and social distancing and other public health measures that the president didnt want her to explain to the American public from the White House podium.

Dr. Gupta asked if she was being censored. Clearly someone was blocking me from doing it, she said. My understanding was I could not be national because the president might see it.

Several of the officials in the interview, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci who unlike the others is a career scientist and is now advising President Biden blamed China, where the virus was first detected, for not being open enough with the United States. And several, including Dr. Redfield and Admiral Giroir, said early stumbles with testing and the attitude within the White House that testing made the president look bad by driving up the number of case reports were a serious problem in the administrations response.

And the problems with testing went beyond Mr. Trumps obsession with optics. Admiral Giroir said that the administration simply did not have as many tests as top officials claimed at the time.

When we said there were millions of tests there werent, right? he said. There were components of the test available but not the full deal.

In a lengthy statement Monday evening, Mr. Trump shot back at Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, blasting them as two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, while praising his administrations efforts to develop a vaccine.

The former president, who routinely questioned the need for lockdowns and other precautions during his administration, said of Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, If it were up to them, wed currently be locked in our basements as our country suffered through a financial depression.

Scientists view Florida the state furthest along in lifting restrictions, reopening society and welcoming tourists as a bellwether for the nation.

If recent trends there are any indication, the rest of the country may be in trouble.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida has been steadily rising, though hospitalizations and deaths are still down. Over the past week, the state has averaged nearly 5,000 cases per day, an increase of 8 percent from its average two weeks earlier.

B.1.1.7, the more contagious variant first identified in Britain, is also rising exponentially in Florida, where it accounts for a greater proportion of total cases than in any other state, according to numbers collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wherever we have exponential growth, we have the expectation of a surge in cases, and a surge in cases will lead to hospitalizations and deaths, said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Florida has had one of the countrys most confusing and inefficient vaccination campaigns, and has fully vaccinated about 15 percent of its population well below what top states, like New Mexico and South Dakota, have managed. Still, immunization of older people and other high-risk individuals may blunt the number of Floridas deaths somewhat. The state has announced it will start offering the vaccine to anyone over age 18 on April 5.

At least some of the cases in Florida are the result of the states open invitation to tourists. Hordes of students on spring break have descended on the state since mid-February. Rowdy crowds on Miami Beach this month forced officials to impose an 8 p.m. curfew, although many people still flouted the rules.

Miami-Dade County, which includes Miami Beach, has experienced one of the nations worst outbreaks, and continues to record high numbers. The county averaged more than 1,100 cases per day over the past week.

In Orange County, cases are on the rise among young people. People 45 and younger account for one in three hospitalizations for Covid, and the average age for new infections has dropped to 30.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has rejected stringent restrictions from the very start of the pandemic. Florida has never had a mask mandate, and in September Mr. DeSantis banned local governments from enforcing mandates of their own. Among his scientific advisers now are architects of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for political leaders to allow the coronavirus to spread naturally among young people, while the elderly and those with underlying conditions sheltered in place.

After weeks of decline followed by a steady plateau, coronavirus cases are rising again in the United States. Deaths are still decreasing, but the country averaged 61,545 cases last week, 11 percent more than the average two weeks earlier.

Scientists predicted weeks ago that the number of infections would curve upward again in late March, at least in part because of the rise of variants of the coronavirus across the country. The variant that walloped Britain, called B.1.1.7, has led to a new wave of cases across most of Europe. Some scientists warned that it may lead to a new wave in the United States.

The rise in infections is also a result of state leaders pulling back on mitigation measures, and large social interactions, like spring break gatherings in Florida, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden administrations chief science adviser, said on the CBS program Face the Nation on Sunday.

The variants are playing a part, but its not completely the variants, Dr. Fauci said. Most states have lifted restrictions, including on indoor dining, in response to the drop in numbers, actions that Dr. Fauci called premature.

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As of Thursday, there were 8,337 known cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in the country, but the actual number is probably much higher because labs in the country analyze only a very small proportion of the diagnosed cases. Still, the trend is clear: The variant which is more transmissible and possibly more lethal has been rising exponentially in the United States, its growth masked by the overall drop in infections.

It is remarkable how much this recalls the situation last year where we had introductions of virus to different places that scientists warned would be a problem, Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. School of Public Health, said in an interview on Sunday. People waited for them to be a problem before they took action and then too late, they took action.

Dr. Hanage said he was particularly worried about B.1.1.7 because it is at least 50 percent more transmissible than the original virus. The brisk pace of vaccinations will stem the tide somewhat, but the rising immunity in the population may be more than offset by the variants contagiousness, he added. B.1.1.7 is really scary, he said.

The vaccines in use in the United States made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are expected to prevent severe disease and death from any of the variants, although they are slightly less effective against a variant that was identified in South Africa. That variant, known as B.1.351, has not yet spread widely in the United States.

Because many of the highest-risk people have been inoculated, hospitalizations and deaths may not show a steep rise along with infections. But a surge in cases will still lead to some severe cases and deaths, Dr. Hanage said.

How large it will be well need to wait and see, he said. But ideally we would not be waiting to see, ideally wed be taking action.

This time last year, Esti Shushans Passover was ruined. The sudden enforcement of the coronavirus lockdown in Israel forced Ms. Shushan to mark the Jewish festival usually a joyous time of large family gatherings with just her four children and husband.

But this weekend, Ms. Shushan, an entrepreneur and womens rights activist, was able to return to something approaching normality. Israels vaccine program has caused infection rates to plummet, leading to a loosening of restrictions. Ms. Shushan gathered on Saturday night with 40 relatives.

It was a feeling of release, she said. It made us feel free. It allowed us to breathe to experience the springtime around us.

Across Israel, life is opening up. More than half of the Israeli population has received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the highest rate in the world.

On Saturday evening, that allowed large groups to celebrate Passover, which marks the escape of Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Then on Sunday morning, Christian worshipers were permitted to gather in large numbers to mark Palm Sunday including at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which according to tradition was built on the site in Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was both crucified and buried.

For many Israelis, the emergence from anti-virus restrictions gave added symbolism to a ritual, known in Judaism as Seder, that centers on freedom.

For Jews, Seder is celebrating liberation, said Harry D. Wall, an activist and documentary filmmaker who celebrated the evening in a group of 11 in Jerusalem 10 more than last year when he spent the holiday alone.

And that made the return to in-person gathering, after a year of on-off lockdowns, restrictions, isolation from friends and family to be even more meaningful this year, Mr. Wall added. It felt like a real deliverance.

The atmosphere at the Palm Sunday service at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where worshipers commemorated Christs entry into Jerusalem, a week before his crucifixion was still subdued compared with the prepandemic era. Most places of worship can still admit only up to 50 percent of their capacity. But it was a happy improvement from last year, said Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the most senior Catholic official in the city.

Last year was a terrible Easter, without people, closed doors, he said in an interview with Reuters after the service. This year is much better the doors are open. We dont have a lot of people, but we feel more hopeful that things will become better.

A few miles to the south in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, Christian Palestinians were also able to gather at the Church of the Nativity, which stands on a site where tradition holds that Christ was born. But the mood in Bethlehem is generally more somber: As in much of the West Bank, the city now shuts down at 7 p.m. to help temper the spread of the virus.

The infection rate is surging in the parts of the occupied territories administered by the Palestinian Authority. The authority has been able to procure only a small fraction of the vaccines it needs to protect the Palestinian population. And Israel has vaccinated predominantly those Palestinians who work in Israel itself or in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, stirring a debate about its responsibility as an occupying power.

Israel argues that Palestinian officials assumed responsibility for vaccinations after the signing of the Oslo accords in the 1990s. But Palestinian advocates argue it is Israels duty to help the Palestinians, citing the Fourth Geneva Convention, an international law that governs occupations.

New York State has introduced a digital app that allows individuals to prove they have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus or have recently tested negative, as part of an effort to fast-track the reopening of businesses, sports arenas and entertainment venues in the state.

New York is the first state to formally create a digital passport for Covid-19. The free online platform, called Excelsior Pass, was developed with IBM and works like a mobile airline boarding pass. Users are assigned a digital pass with a secure QR code, which they can print out or save to their smartphones. Participating businesses then use a companion app to scan the customers QR code and verify their Covid status. The state said peoples data would be kept secure and confidential.

The question of public health or the economy has always been a false choice the answer must be both, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement. As more New Yorkers get vaccinated each day and as key public health metrics continue to regularly reach their lowest rates in months, the first-in-the-nation Excelsior Pass heralds the next step in our thoughtful, science-based reopening.

The Biden administration has been monitoring private and nonprofit efforts to develop vaccine passports, and is working to ensure that they meet certain standards, including for privacy, Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told reporters this month.

As we increase the number of people vaccinated, we know some people may have a need to demonstrate that they are vaccinated, Mr. Zients said. The private sector and not-for-profit coalitions are already beginning to work on this. Our role is to help ensure that any solutions in this area should be simple, free, open source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper, and designed from the start to protect peoples privacy.

As part of the initial launch, New Yorkers can use the digital pass to verify their Covid-19 status to attend games at stadiums and arenas, wedding receptions or other events above the states social gathering limit.

Major venues, including the 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden in New York City, have announced they plan to use this technology in the coming weeks. Beginning April 2, smaller arts and entertainment venues can also use Excelsior Pass. Interested New Yorkers can sign up for the app here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released its guidance for people in the United States who have been fully vaccinated, which is two weeks after the second dose in the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or two weeks after the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

It allows for the resumption of some activities in private settings between fully vaccinated people in small groups or a fully vaccinated household with one other unvaccinated household. It emphasized how fully vaccinated people should keep following health and safety precautions in public, including wearing a mask.

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Doctors in the Paris region warned Sunday that hospitals there may soon be overwhelmed with coronavirus cases as a third wave of the pandemic sweeps through the country, possibly forcing them to choose which patients they will treat.

In an op-ed article published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, 41 doctors said that vaccinations were not being administered fast enough, creating a catastrophic medical situation in which Paris region hospital capacity will be exceeded in the next two weeks.

We have never experienced such a situation, even during the worst attacks in recent years, the doctors wrote, referring to the attacks by Islamic State terrorists in Paris in 2015 that killed 130 people.

We will be forced to triage patients in order to save as many lives as possible, the doctors added, saying that the emergency would lead to non-access of care for some patients.

The warning comes as the number of Covid patients in intensive care in France hit 4,900, nearly the same level as a year ago, when the pandemic first surged into the country. The rise now is linked to the rapid spread of the variant first discovered in Britain. France has lagged behind other European countries in its vaccine rollout.

In an interview published Sunday in the same newspaper, President Emmanuel Macron defended a recent decision not to fully lock down the country despite the alarming surge.

The government recently imposed a nationwide curfew of 7 p.m. and closed nonessential businesses. But on Sunday, a warm sunny afternoon, crowds of people in Paris jammed the quais along the Seine river and thronged to parks, some not wearing masks while drinking and eating, prompting warnings from police officers patrolling the streets.

Mr. Macron, in the newspaper interview, left open the possibility of shifting course should hospitals face the threat of being overwhelmed.

The coming weeks will be difficult, he said. We will take all the necessary measures in due time, and in my view, there is no taboo.

In other news around the world:

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of potential curfews as case rates continue to climb. The countrys vaccination rate 10 percent of the population has received at least a first shot, according to a New York Times database is behind other nations in Europe and around the world.

Britain, where at least 45 percent of the country is partly vaccinated, is set to lift at least two lockdown measures. As of Monday, up to six people, or two households, can gather outside; and outdoor sports sites, like tennis courts and basketball courts, can be used to a limited degree.

In Australia, the city of Brisbane announced a three-day lockdown after seven people were infected with the coronavirus, the first citywide lockdown in the country in more than a month. Starting at 5 p.m. on Monday, residents of Australias third-largest city will be allowed to leave their houses only for essential purposes such as buying groceries, exercising or seeking medical care and masks will be mandatory in public. Tests showed the virus spreading in Brisbane is the highly contagious variant first detected in Britain, officials said.

Chris Adams, 36, has spent the past year of the pandemic living with his grandparents in Wichita, Kan., and being extremely strict about social distancing. I never went out, he said.

But starting Monday, when all adults in Kansas become eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, Mr. Adams plans to find a vaccination site where there is an available appointment. What Im looking forward to is seeing my friends again, he said.

Kansas is one of six states Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas are the others that are expanding eligibility for the vaccine to all adults on Monday. Minnesota will follow on Tuesday, and Indiana and South Carolina on Wednesday.

Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas urged residents last week to seek out appointments, saying, With the anticipated increase in supply from the federal government, we must get every dose of vaccine into arms quickly.

Even as vaccine eligibility continues to expand across America nearly all states have pledged to make every adult eligible by May 1 the United States has also reported an increase in new cases over the past week. About 75,000 new cases were reported on Friday, a significant increase from the 60,000 added the Friday before.

States in the Northeast have accounted for about 30 percent of the nations new cases over the past two weeks, up from 20 percent in the first couple of weeks in February.

In New York, there has been an average of 8,426 new cases a day, an 18 percent increase from the average two weeks earlier, according to a New York Times database. In New Jersey over the past week, there have been an average of 4,249 new cases reported daily, a 21 percent increase from the average two weeks earlier. And on Friday, Vermont set a single-day case record with 283 new infections; it is the first state to set a case record since Jan. 18.

For many, the vaccine cannot come soon enough.

Nicole Drum, 42, a writer in the Kansas City, Kan., metro area, cried on Friday when she found out that she would be eligible to get the vaccine as early as Monday. She started calling pharmacies and looking online for available appointments within minutes of the news breaking, she said.

Ms. Drum called about 10 places without success. She had more luck on a county website, and booked an appointment for Wednesday.

She said she planned to wear a special T-shirt saying I believe in science to her appointment. I got myself a fun Im-getting-the-vaccine outfit, she said, laughing.

She also plans to take her 4-year-old son with her, because she wants him to see how research and science and people coming together can really help stem these kinds of things, she said.

I want him to know that theres no need to be afraid all the time of big scary things, because there are always helpers trying to figure this out, Ms. Drum said. While the solution might be something thats a jab in the arm that hurts a little bit, its worth it.

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BARCELONA, Spain Mireia Serret, a 21-year old student at the University of Barcelona, said that she was not a big fan of the band that played here on Saturday, nor does she normally like large crowds.

Nevertheless, she snapped up one of the 5,000 tickets to Europes biggest indoor rock concert since the start of the pandemic. It had just been too long since I was last able to dance and have fun at a concert, she said.

Organized by a group of Spanish music promoters as part of an initiative called Festivals for Safe Culture, the concert in the Palau de Sant Jordi was presented as Europes boldest effort to get thousands into an indoor venue, without seating or mandatory social distancing. The sole act was Love of Lesbian, a Spanish indie rock band formed decades ago.

A hospital team helped test the concertgoers for the coronavirus beforehand. Six people tested positive, according to the organizers. The team is relying on public medical records to track whether any concertgoers later test positive.

At a time when countries like France and Italy have recently put their residents back under lockdown to help stop another wave of infection, the people behind the Barcelona event said their goal was to look ahead.

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Covid-19: Birx Lashes Trumps Pandemic Response and Says Deaths Could Have Been Decreased Substantially - The New York Times

Heres what you need to know:A hot dog vendor in Los Angeles reopened on Monday after being closed for two months. The restaurant has been in business since 1939.Credit...Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse Getty Images

Tens of thousands of students walked into classrooms in Chicago public schools on Monday for the first time in nearly a year. Restaurants in Massachusetts were allowed to operate without capacity limits, and venues like roller skating rinks and movie theaters in most of the state opened with fewer restrictions. And South Carolina erased its limits on large gatherings.

Across the country, the first day of March brought a wave of reopenings and liftings of pandemic restrictions, signs that more Americans were tentatively emerging from months of isolation, even if not everyone agrees that the time is ripe.

There are plenty of reasons for optimism: Vaccinations have increased significantly in recent weeks, and daily reports of new coronavirus cases have fallen across the United States from their January peaks.

In Kentucky, all but a handful of school districts are now offering in-person classes, while the state races to vaccinate teachers as quickly as possible. Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters last week that the states falling infection statistics showed that immunizations were beginning to make an impact.

It means vaccinations work, he said. Were already seeing it. Were seeing it in these numbers. Its a really positive sign.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, President Bidens chief medical adviser for Covid-19, said at a news briefing on Monday that for small groups of people who have all been fully vaccinated, there was a low risk in gathering together at home. Activities beyond that, he said, would depend on data, modeling and good clinical common sense, adding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would soon have guidance for what vaccinated people could safely do.

The positive signs come with caveats. Though the national statistics have improved drastically since January, they have plateaued in the last week or so, and the United States is still reporting more than 65,000 new cases a day on average comparable to the peak of last summers surge, according to a New York Times database. The country is still averaging about 2,000 deaths per day, though deaths are a lagging indicator because it can take weeks for patients to die.

More contagious variants of the virus are circulating in the country, with the potential to push case counts upward again. Testing has fallen 30 percent in recent weeks, leaving experts worried about how quickly new outbreaks will be known. And millions of Americans are still waiting to be vaccinated.

Given all that, some experts worry that the reopenings are coming a bit too soon.

Were, hopefully, in between what I hope will be the last big wave, and the beginning of the period where I hope Covid will become very uncommon, said Robert Horsburgh, an epidemiologist at the Boston University School of Public Health. But we dont know that. Ive been advocating for us to just hang tight for four to six more weeks.

The director of the C.D.C., Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said at the briefing on Monday that she was really worried about the rollbacks of restrictions in some states. She cautioned that with the decline in cases stalling and with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained.

And the plateauing case levels must be taken extremely seriously, Dr. Walensky warned at a briefing last week. She added: I know people are tired; they want to get back to life, to normal. But were not there yet.

After some counties in Washington State allowed movie theaters to reopen, Nick Butcher, 36, made up for lost time by attending screenings of the Lord of the Rings trilogy for three straight nights. He bought some M&Ms at the concession stand, sat distanced from others in the audience, and said he felt as though things were almost back to normal.

A first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine substantially reduced the risk of older people becoming ill with Covid-19, scientists in Britain reported on Monday, the strongest sign yet that a shot that much of the world is relying on to end the pandemic will protect the elderly.

Four weeks after the first dose, the vaccine was roughly 60 percent effective in preventing Covid-19 among people at least 70 years old in England, the scientists wrote in a paper that was posted online on Monday but not yet published in a journal or vetted by other researchers.

That figure appeared to rise in the following week, though there was a high level of statistical uncertainty in the subsequent number.

For countries across Europe that have been hesitant about authorizing the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in older people, the data could resolve some of those doubts. The early clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine did not enroll as many older people as the trials of other shots, making a number of European countries uneasy about using it in that age group.

But Britain decided to authorize the vaccine for people of all ages, creating a valuable store of data on its effectiveness.

In France, one of the countries that had restricted the AstraZeneca vaccine to younger people, the countrys health minister said people over 65 with pre-existing conditions would be able to receive the vaccine, Reuters reported.

In part because of the age restrictions, countries across Europe have been slow to use their doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with some health workers holding out for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine instead.

The same study from England showed strong protection from the Pfizer vaccine. Among people at least 70 years old, a first dose was 61 percent effective in preventing Covid-19 up to four weeks after the shot, a figure that then plateaued, the study said.

In people at least 80 years old, a first dose was 70 percent effective at preventing Covid-19 four weeks later, a figure that rose to 89 percent two weeks after the second shot. (Britain has decided to delay second doses of both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots up to 12 weeks after the first.)

The results demonstrate that a single dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine provides a high level of protection against severe disease in the most vulnerable age groups, Azra Ghani, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London, said of the findings.

Because Britain authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine later than the Pfizer vaccine, there is less data on the effectiveness of a full two-dose course of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Both vaccines were also highly effective at preventing coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the study from England.

The study was part of a wealth of data that has emerged from Britains mass inoculation program showing that the vaccines were working as intended. No other large nation is inoculating people as quickly as Britain, the first country in the world to authorize and begin using both the Pfizer shot and the one developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced a plan intended to encourage districts to reopen schools, the latest state to take the step that has drawn contentious deliberations across the country.

The agreement includes $2 billion in incentives and fast-tracked vaccinations to lure teachers back for at least some of the remaining school year.

President Biden has pushed for schools to safely reopen, even if that means limited in-person learning, having called for them to be open five days a week, but has been vague about what that would look like. Less than half of students in the United States are attending public schools that offer traditional full-time schedules, frustrating both parents and educators.

In Philadelphia, elected officials, teachers unions and health agencies have urged strict caution, putting most districts on hybrid schedules, while some remain fully remote. In the city itself, the teachers union and district reached a reopening deal to return students in kindergarten through the second grade to classrooms in phases over the month of March. The city is expediting teacher vaccination and purchasing air purifiers, and hopes to return older students to school before the end of the academic year.

The new schools chancellor in New York City, the largest public school district in the country, pledged on Friday to at least partially reopen high schools by the end of the year. While the citys schools were among the first in the country to reopen last fall, the in-person learning has been inconsistent because of the virus, and high schools have been closed since November.

The new measures in California come as the state emerges from a towering post-holiday spike in coronavirus cases. The aim is to restore six to 12 weeks of in-person class for the regular school year, which ends in late June in most of the states districts. Most of Californias six million schoolchildren have been receiving only remote instruction for the past year.

Rather than mandating reopening, the state will make a time-limited offer of grants to help pay for coronavirus testing, upgraded ventilation and other campus safeguards, along with $4.6 billion for extended class time and summer school.

The money is modest by California standards. The state spent nearly $100 billion last year on its public school system, and the $2 billion pot will be open to more than 1,000 school districts. Those with plans to reopen after March 31 will be eligible for less money, with grants shrinking to zero for schools opening after May 15.

And reopenings are likely to be limited, particularly where the virus and its variants are still surging. In counties with the states highest-risk purple designation Los Angeles, for instance schools will only have to offer face-to-face class for high-needs students and children in transitional kindergarten through second grade to be eligible for reopening money.

In lower-risk counties, districts applying for the grants also will have to offer face-to-face class in elementary schools and at least one middle school and one high school grade.

But the incentives, along with the governors promise last week to earmark 10 percent of new first doses of vaccines for school employees, establish Californias clearest blueprint so far for restoring in-person instruction for the bulk of the states six million-plus public school students. And they address key demands of the states powerful teachers unions. Most large districts, including those in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, have been operating remotely for the vast majority of students for nearly a year.

On Monday, Austin Beutner, the Los Angeles districts superintendent, said Mr. Newsom had procured enough vaccine doses for its schools to inoculate 40,000 teachers, bus drivers, custodians and other school employees within the next two weeks enough to reopen Los Angeles classrooms at least through second grade by mid- to late April if school employee unions comply.

Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents educators in the nations second-largest school district, have asked members to vote this week on a proposed endorsement of their conditions for an in-person return, which include teacher vaccines, stringent health measures and a potential sticking point: a rate of community transmission that is significantly lower than present before schools can reopen.

California school districts need agreements with their unions in order to reopen, although most of the states other large districts have already worked out at least a framework for an in-person return.

Long Beach, where city and school district officials have been working together to vaccinate teachers since January, for instance, are on track to resume in-person classes on March 31. And the schools in Elk Grove, near Sacramento, have said elementary students there could be back in classrooms, at least part time, by the middle of this month.

Dana Goldstein contributed reporting.

Extraordinarily high staff turnover at U.S. nursing homes most likely contributed to the shocking number of deaths at the facilities during the pandemic, the authors of a new study suggested.

The study, which was published Monday in Health Affairs, a health policy journal, represents a comprehensive look at the turnover rates in 15,645 nursing homes across the country, accounting for nearly all of the facilities certified by the federal government. The researchers found the average annual rate was 128 percent, with some facilities experiencing turnover that exceeded 300 percent.

Researchers pointed to the findings to urge Medicare to publish the turnover rates at individual nursing home sites, as a way of putting a spotlight on substandard conditions and pressuring owners to make improvements.

Inadequate staffing and low pay have long plagued nursing homes and quality of care for the more than one million residents who live in these facilities. But the pandemic has exposed these issues even more sharply, with investigations underway into some states oversight of the facilities as Covid-19 cases spiraled unchecked and deaths skyrocketed.

The high turnover rate most likely made it harder for nursing homes to put in place strong infection controls during the pandemic, and led to rampant spread of the coronavirus, said Ashvin Gandhi, the lead author and a health economist and assistant professor at the University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management.

Nursing-home owners blame inadequate reimbursement from Medicaid, the federal-state program for elderly skilled nursing care.

Workforce recruitment and retention is among the most pressing challenges confronting long-term care providers, and we have been calling for help for years, Dr. David Gifford, the chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, a trade group, said in an emailed statement.

Its high past time that providers receive the proper resources to invest in our frontline caregivers in order to improve quality care, he said.

Nursing home staff members have also shown resistance to getting vaccinated against the coronavirus. If a nurse who was immunized leaves and is replaced, the facility will need to ensure the new employee is also vaccinated, especially given the reluctance of some workers to get a coronavirus shot.

Trying to do a one-shot vaccination push isnt enough, Dr. Gandhi said. You need continued vaccination outreach.

New York City added workers in the food service and hotel industries to the list of people eligible for coronavirus vaccination on Monday, the same day the governors of Florida and Ohio announced expansions for eligibility in their states.

The expansions come as the supply of vaccines being distributed nationally is ramping up, and after a third vaccine, a single-shot dose from Johnson & Johnson, was authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration over the weekend. The pace of U.S. vaccinations is again accelerating, up to about 1.82 million doses per day on average, according to a New York Times database, above last months peak before snowstorms disrupted distribution.

In New York City, people who work in regional food banks, food pantries and permitted home-delivered meal programs became eligible on Monday to receive a vaccine. Hotel workers who have direct contact with guests also became eligible.

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, said on Monday that people 50 and older who work in K-12 schools, law enforcement or firefighting would become eligible on Wednesday. Florida was one of the first states that decided to vaccinate anyone 65 and older, even before most essential workers, which led to long lines and confusion.

Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said on Monday that the state would receive more than 448,000 doses this week, including more than 96,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He said that in response to this significant increase in the amount of vaccine coming into Ohio, a new group of people would be eligible on Thursday to get a shot.

That group includes people with Type 1 diabetes, pregnant women and certain workers in child care and funeral services, as well as law enforcement and corrections officers.

To stay ahead of more contagious and possibly more deadly virus variants, states have been racing to ramp up vaccinations and expand eligibility. But they have often done so before the supply could increase quickly enough, creating shortages and making it harder for people to get vaccination appointments.

Widespread testing is crucial in controlling the spread of the coronavirus and squashing new outbreaks, experts say. But the amount of testing in the United States has fallen by 30 percent in recent weeks.

From a high of nearly 14 million tests a week in early January, the pace fell to fewer than 10 million a level not seen since October in the week ended Feb. 24, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Some areas report even sharper declines: Michigan is testing about half as many people now as it was in November, and Delawares state-run sites are testing about one-third as many. Los Angeles Countys sites, which were running flat out last month, tested just 35 percent of their capacity last week.

Experts cited a number of factors that could be contributing to the slump:

Fewer exposures. Since daily tallies of new coronavirus infections have fallen sharply, fewer people may be having contacts that would prompt them to seek a test.

Less travel. The holiday rush is over, reducing the need for people to get tested before or after trips.

Bad weather. The severe storms and Arctic temperatures that battered much of the country, from Texas to the Northeast, caused many testing sites to close temporarily.

The vaccine rollout. Some states have shifted their limited public health resources, and their public messaging, toward vaccination efforts at the expense of testing.

Pandemic fatigue. Some experts worry the decline may be yet another symptom of public exhaustion and frustration with pandemic precautions and safety measures.

All those forces may be at play, said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: My sense is that its probably that there are fewer options for testing, fewer communications about it, people may be perceiving that its less necessary maybe they just dont see the point any more.

The slump in testing, at a time when a clear picture of the pandemic is still badly needed, worries some epidemiologists. Theres nothing about the current situation that has made testing any less necessary, Dr. Nuzzo said.

Among other things, less testing makes it harder to follow the viruss mutations and to get ahead of variants that may be more contagious or deadly, said Dr. Rick Pescatore, the chief physician at the Delaware Division of Public Health. We cant identify variants until we first identify positives.

But the decline in testing may not be a cause for alarm and may even be a good sign if it reflects wider progress in tamping down the pandemic, said Dr. Clemens Hong, who runs Los Angeles Countys testing program.

The biggest reason for the drop in testing demand, I think, is the decrease in infections and spread, Dr. Hong said. Covid-19 is not spreading as quickly right now, which means theres fewer people with symptoms, and also fewer people having contact with people with Covid-19. Thats just the reality.

Across the country, new case reports have dropped sharply since mid-January. At its peak on Jan. 8, the U.S. reported a seven-day average of over 259,000 new cases. Now, the seven-day average is less than 70,000, as of Saturday.

Hospitalizations and deaths have followed suit, and vaccine distribution is rapidly increasing: 15 percent of the U.S. population has now received at least one dose.

Nonetheless, Dr. Hong said, testing remains vital to getting ahead of outbreaks.

Even with all these declines and the rollout of the vaccines, its just not enough, he said. We dont have enough immunity in the community to prevent another surge. We may never see a surge like we saw in December and January again, but well see little pockets and little surges that will try to come to life, and we just need to put them out.

When Johnson & Johnsons coronavirus vaccine won emergency use authorization on Saturday from the Food and Drug Administration, the move augmented the nations vaccination effort with a third major tool one that differs markedly from the first two authorized vaccines, made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Most notably, it is administered in a single dose instead of two, and can be kept unfrozen in an ordinary refrigerator for up to three months features that promise greater flexibility as public health officials try to immunize Americans as quickly as possible.

Much is still to be determined about how this new tool will be used. Here is what we know so far.

Within the next few days. Johnson & Johnson started shipping out doses on Monday, and they can be used as soon as they reach vaccination sites starting on Tuesday.

At first, the increase in availability will be limited. The company had about 3.9 million doses on hand to ship right away, but after that, deliveries could be patchy for a few weeks. (For comparison, the nation is using up that many doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in a little more than two days.)

By the end of March, Johnson & Johnson says it will ship roughly 16 million more doses. Even so, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines will continue to make up the majority of the nations supply.

The same way the two earlier vaccines are: in proportion to each state or territorys population.

Thats still under discussion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the vaccine can be given to people 18 and over, and state officials are working out what their policies will be.

Because the new vaccine is given in a single shot and doesnt require cold storage, some experts and officials have suggested directing it toward hard-to-reach segments of the population (like rural residents or homeless people), or to people who might not keep an appointment for a second shot (like college students or those with mobility issues).

But there is concern about appearing to favor or disfavor some groups, and the Biden administration has said it will insist that the new vaccine be distributed equitably.

Thats not clear. Right now, people are getting whichever vaccine the site has on hand when their turn comes, and appointment scheduling systems generally dont tell users beforehand which it will be. Depending on how states decide to deploy the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, though, it may be possible to effectively choose what you get by choosing where you sign up to get it.

Health experts say the best shot is the one you can get the soonest, whichever one it turns out to be. All three authorized vaccines are highly protective, and the differences among them pale in comparison, they say, with the risk you would run by being picky and passing up a chance to get a shot because it was not your top choice.

A Frontier Airlines flight from Miami to La Guardia Airport in New York was canceled on Sunday night after a large group of passengers, including several adults, refused to wear masks, the airline said.

By Monday morning, the airline was facing accusations of anti-Semitism for its treatment of the passengers, who are Hasidic Jews, as well as demands for an investigation from the Anti-Defamation League of New York and other groups. Frontier steadfastly held to its position that the passengers had refused to comply with federal rules requiring them to wear masks.

Several phone videos that have surfaced do not show the confrontation that took place between the passengers and the Frontier crew members, only the aftermath. The video footage from inside the aircraft appeared to show members of the group wearing masks. Some passengers said that the episode escalated because just one member of the group, a 15-month-old child, was not wearing one.

Videos of the passengers exiting the plane amid chaos, captured by other people on the flight, were posted on Twitter by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. In one video, a passenger says, This is an anti-Semitic act.

Another video showed a couple holding a maskless baby in a car seat, as children could be heard crying and a woman explained that the young children in their group, sitting in the back of the plane, had taken off their masks to eat.

A Frontier Airlines spokeswoman said in a statement that a large group of passengers repeatedly refused to comply with the U.S. governments federal mask mandate.

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was vaccinated against the coronavirus on Monday as the country began the next phase of its inoculation drive, one of the largest in the world.

India has approved two coronavirus vaccines for emergency use: the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is produced by the Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine producer; and Covaxin, which was developed by Bharat Biotech, an Indian pharmaceutical company.

Mr. Modi received the first of two doses of Covaxin, in line with his pitch for a self-reliant India, which he reiterated in his monthly radio address over the weekend. The first condition for self-reliance is to have pride in the things of ones own country, he said.

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Covid-19: The U.S. Is Edging Toward Normal, Alarming Some Officials - The New York Times

The emotions around receiving the COVID-19 vaccine have been overwhelming for some and resonate with earlier experiences. Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images hide caption

The emotions around receiving the COVID-19 vaccine have been overwhelming for some and resonate with earlier experiences.

After a year of fear, stress and isolation, the COVID-19 vaccine often produces more than a little pinch of sensation in your arm.

The experience also stirs strong emotions. Some feel relief. Others gratitude. Many are overcome and start crying.

Some people say the freedom squelched by the pandemic is beginning to return. That feeling of liberty is familiar to those who have survived previous epidemics.

On a spring afternoon in 1954, 1-year-old Gloria Anderson played with a group of toddlers in Billings, Mont. Two days later her mother learned that one of the other children had contracted polio. Within days Anderson started feeling sick first a bit of nausea, then fever. Her mom gasped when she put Anderson in a high chair and saw that she could only move her right leg.

"I was kicking one leg," Anderson says. "And my mom stuck the pin in my left leg, and I didn't move it."

They rushed her to the hospital where she quarantined for three weeks. Even her mother couldn't visit. The left side of her body was paralyzed, and the prognosis was tragic she would never walk again.

But Anderson was one of the lucky ones. Her immobility was temporary, and six months later she took her first steps.

In rare cases, you can contract polio twice. So when the polio vaccine arrived in 1955, Anderson's mother raced her two daughters to the doctor's office.

"It was a sugar cube," Anderson says. "And we all took it. And my mom was radiant!"

Radiant because her girls were safe. But the disease scarred Anderson both physically and emotionally for life. The left side of her body never fully recovered, and she's had to endure numerous medical procedures over the years. Now in her 60s, Anderson started falling a lot and eventually had to get fitted for a leg brace. It's a daily reminder of her illness as a small child.

Because a virus almost killed her and still affects her life today, Anderson took the coronavirus seriously from the start. She and her husband religiously sheltered in place, and if they had to leave their home they wore masks. They desperately missed their grandchildren.

"There's heartache," Anderson says. "These are hard times. But we do it for one another."

Gloria Anderson receives her second COVID-19 vaccination. David Anderson /Gloria Anderson hide caption

Gloria Anderson receives her second COVID-19 vaccination.

Like her mother six decades ago, Anderson was beaming after recently receiving her second vaccine shot.

Viral trauma

Leo Herrera also felt a familiar sense of relief when a nurse inserted a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine into his arm. The past 12 months marked the second time the 39-year-old watched a virus rip through his community. COVID-19 has disproportionately hit both Latinos and LGBTQ people.

"I'm a gay man," says the San Francisco resident. "I have a lot of viral trauma from the HIV pandemic. I'm also a first-generation Mexican immigrant who grew up undocumented. So there's a lot of overlap between the two pandemics."

Back in 2012, Herrera was dating an HIV-positive man. That same year PrEP, a daily pill that prevents the user from contracting the virus, hit the market. But, just like the vaccine rollout today, access tilted toward affluent communities with good insurance.

"It took years for PrEP to be distributed widely to folks of color and folks without health care," Herrera says.

And just like today, a lot of media focused on unknowns. Would the pill lead to toxicity? Bone density issues? Maybe kidney problems?

In the end, Herrera took a leap of faith. The mental health benefits outweighed the potential physical risks.

"The first time I had sex without a condom with an HIV-positive person was a freedom and a loss of shame and anxiety that was phenomenal," he says.

Jonathan Salinas can relate. Even though the 23-year-old San Francisco resident didn't endure the AIDS crisis, the virus haunts his generation, as well.

"When I was growing up as a gay man I was told that HIV should always be in the periphery or around the conversations of sex," he says. So, when he learned about PrEP during a visit to Planned Parenthood he was thrilled to start taking the daily pill.

"As soon as I got on PrEP, that anxiety, that weight off of my shoulders, it lifted almost immediately because I felt empowered," he says.

Salinas was filled with a similar sense of relief when he received his COVID-19 vaccine. He hasn't visited his relatives for months out of fear he'd bring the virus home.

"I just felt so much hope," he says about getting the vaccine.

A beat too long

While driving to get his second COVID-19 shot, Leo Herrera stopped for gas. When he walked inside the station to pay, he passed a group of people not wearing masks.

"And I thought, 'Oh, man. I cannot wait for this to be the last time that I have to focus on what everybody else is doing to take care of me. I can finally take that power back, ' " he says, grinning.

He's looking forward to the time when most people are vaccinated. When he finds himself at a wedding reception or a bar, and without thinking he can open his arms to hug a stranger. "And the hug is going to go on for a beat too long," he says. "And you're going to hold on to that stranger, and you're both going to realize what that hug means."

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COVID-19 Vaccination Has Been Conjuring Up Emotions And Memories - NPR

RAMALLAHand GAZA CITY, 21 March 2021- On 17 March, the State of Palestine received the first shipment of 37,440 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and 24,000 doses of the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX facility as part of the first wave allocation. These vaccine doses were transferred to the Ministry of Healths ultra-cold chain and vaccine storage facilities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Further consignments of COVAX vaccine doses are planned for the State of Palestine to cover 20 per cent of the population approximately 1 million people. As with the current consignments, these doses are for both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to the prioritization criteria of the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan.

COVAX is a global facility representing partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO), Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) working on the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. It includes 190 countries with a total population of more than 7 billion people and ensures fair and equal access to COVID-19 vaccines supplied through UNICEF. WHO and UNICEF are supporting the Government of the State of Palestines national vaccination campaign.

Dr Ayadil Saparbekov, acting WHO Head of Office for West Bank and Gaza said: WHO welcomes the opportunity to be able to help Palestinians fight the Corona virus with this important delivery of vaccines aimed initially at frontline healthcare workers. People in both the West Bank and Gaza desperately need these vaccines, which is an effective tool in the fight against COVID-19, in addition to the public health measures already in place. Were proud to play our part in the global COVAX initiative, alongside our partners, as it helps to fill the gaps where vaccines are needed and in short supply. Todays delivery can give Palestinians a sense of hope that life can return to normal.

We have been battling COVID-19 for one year now. These vaccine doses provide us with another tool in fighting the spread of this virus a critical tool. Nevertheless, it is critical that, alongside the vaccination of the frontline health workers and vulnerable groups, we also continue to reinforce public health measures such as correctly using masks, handwashing, and physical distancing. This vaccine will help return the Gaza Strip and the West Bank closer to normal daily life. Children in the State of Palestine have endured much this last year. It is a privilege for UNICEF to support the Ministry of Health and our partners to ensure equity of vaccine delivery to both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, starting with health care workers and the most vulnerable groups, said Lucia Elmi, UNICEF Special Representative to the State of Palestine.

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Arrival of first wave consignment of COVAX COVID-19 vaccine doses to the State of Palestine - UNICEF

MUMBAI India is racing to contain a second wave of the coronavirus, but its vaccination campaign is running into doubters like Akbar Mohamed Patel.

A resident of Mumbais densely populated slum area of Dharavi, Mr. Patel survived a severe bout of the coronavirus in May. The first wave prompted Mumbai officials to seal off his housing complex, confining thousands of people for nearly two months.

Still, the current campaign has been marred by a slow initial government rollout, as well as skepticism and apathy from people like Mr. Patel and his neighbors. On social media we come to know this is all a big game to make money, Mr. Patel said. Of the vaccine, he said, many things have been hidden.

The coronavirus, once seemingly in retreat, is again rippling across India. Confirmed infections have risen to about 31,600 daily from a low of about 9,800 in February. In a recent two-week period, deaths shot up 82 percent.

The outbreak is centered on the state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, the countrys financial hub. Entire districts of the state have gone back into lockdown. Scientists are investigating whether a new strain found there is more virulent, like variants found in Britain, South Africa and Brazil.

Officials are under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to aggressively ramp up testing and vaccination, especially in Mumbai, to avoid disruptions like last years dramatic nationwide lockdown and resulting economic recession.

I am very categorical that we should stop it, contain it, just here, said Dr. Rahul Pandit, a critical care physician at a private hospital in Mumbai and a member of the Maharashtra Covid-19 task force.

Indias vaccination campaign could have global consequences.

Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that an expected drop in Britains Covid-19 vaccine supplies stemmed from a nearly monthlong delay in delivery of five million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine being manufactured in India. The reasons for the delay are not clear, but the manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, has said shipments will depend in part on domestic Indian needs.

India is a crucial link in the vaccination supply chain. Amid hoarding by the United States and other wealthy countries, India has given away or sold tens of millions of doses to other countries, even as it struggles to vaccinate its own people. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the foreign minister, has said that the availability of vaccines in India will determine how many doses go overseas.

While vaccinations were initially available only in public hospitals, India is now giving jabs in private clinics and enormous makeshift vaccination centers, and it is considering making them available in pharmacies, too. Vaccination hours have been extended, and those eligible can register in person and receive a shot the same day, bypassing an online scheduling system.

The Indian government is playing catch-up. Since it launched a nationwide vaccination drive two months ago, uptake has been disappointing. Less than 3 percent of the population has received a jab, including about half of health care workers. At the current rate, it will take India about a decade to vaccinate 70 percent of its people, according to one estimate. By comparison, roughly a quarter of the population of the United States has had at least one jab.

Not everybody in India has the internet access needed to register for a shot online. But the campaign has also been plagued by public skepticism. The government approved a domestically developed vaccine, called Covaxin, before its safety and efficacy trials were even over, though preliminary findings since then have suggested it works.

March 21, 2021, 3:14 p.m. ET

The other jab available in India is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which was suspended in some countries after a number of patients reported blood clots and strokes, though scientists havent found a link between the shots and the afflictions.

Some of the tepid response may come down to apathy. A nationwide study released in February found that one in five Indian people were likely to have already had Covid-19. Surveys in cities show even higher prevalence rates. The disease is just one among many that people in India worry about, joining tuberculosis, dengue fever and avian flu. Many people are struggling to recover from the huge financial hit of Indias lockdown last year and cant afford to take time off work to stand in line for a shot.

These are hand-to-mouth people. Bread, butter depends on their daily work. They cant sit back and relax and wait for the wave to go, said Kiran Dighavkar, the assistant commissioner of the Mumbai ward that includes Dharavi. They cant afford quarantine, so the only option is to vaccinate these people as early as possible.

Health experts are prodding Mr. Modi to do more, including making the vaccine available to more people. Older adults, health-care and frontline workers and some people with medical conditions are currently eligible for shots.

I would try to put the injection in the arm of every Indian that is 18 years and above, and I would do it now, said Dr. N.K. Ganguly, the president of a medical research institute in New Delhi.

Persuading the 800,000 residents of Dharavi, Asias largest slum, to get vaccinated is seen as critical. Residents travel for work to every corner of the city of 20 million. Officials are reintroducing what earlier in the pandemic they called the Dharavi model: If the disease can be contained there, transmission can be curbed citywide and even further afield.

It wont be easy, even though just three miles away, a jumbo vaccination center is administering about 15,000 shots a day, free of charge.

Day and night, Dharavi is teeming with life. People overflow from thin, corrugated metal houses, stacked on top of each other like matchboxes, onto crowded, mostly unpaved lanes strung with loose electrical wire. Animals skitter between parked motorcycles and piles of debris. Shops, tanneries and factories are squeezed next to houses of worship and community toilets.

We have been OK all this while, Abdul Razad Rakim, a 61-year-old diabetic, said from a foldout chair in front of the tiny apartment he shares with his wife, Shamim. Why do we have to go?

A short walk away, Janabai Shinde, a former janitor for the city health department, was squatting on her front step, rising every few minutes to spit red tobacco juice into a drain.

I take walks in this lane. I sit here for fresh air. I have not stepped out much since the lockdown, Ms. Shinde said. Her son, who works for the city, has already registered her for a turn at a vaccination center. She said she hoped her neighbors would join her.

Its for our good, she said.

The Mumbai government has enlisted aid groups to set up help desks in Dharavi, where residents can ask questions and complete online registration to make an appointment for a free shot.

Plans are underway to set up a vaccination center within the confines of the slum, and to reopen an institutional quarantine center with thousands of beds, according to Mr. Dighavkar, the assistant commissioner.

Last week, as Maharashtra recorded its highest new case numbers since September, the chief executive of a disaster relief group delivered a pep talk at Gold Filled Heights, an apartment complex largely occupied by members of the Jain religious group, who run many of the jewelry businesses in Dharavi.

We cant let the virus spread again, said the chief executive, Shantilal Muttha. If it spreads in Dharavi, it becomes a threat for the entire Mumbai and Maharashtra.

Jyoti Shelar contributed reporting.

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Covid-19 Is Surging in India, but Vaccinations Are Slow - The New York Times

For Immediate Release: March 19, 2021

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first machine learning-based Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) non-diagnostic screening device that identifies certain biomarkers that are indicative of some types of conditions, such as hypercoagulation (a condition causing blood to clot more easily than normal).

The Tiger Tech COVID Plus Monitor is intended for use by trained personnel to help prevent exposure to and spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The device identifies certain biomarkers that may be indicative of SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as other hypercoagulable conditions (such as sepsis or cancer) or hyper-inflammatory states (such as severe allergic reactions), in asymptomatic individuals over the age of 5. The Tiger Tech COVID Plus Monitor is designed for use following a temperature reading that does not meet criteria for fever in settings where temperature check is being conducted in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local institutional infection prevention and control guidelines. This device is not a substitute for a COVID-19 diagnostic test and is not intended for use in individuals with symptoms of COVID-19.

The FDA is committed to continuing to support innovative methods to fight the COVID-19 pandemic through new screening tools, said Jeff Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of FDAs Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Combining use of this new screening device, that can indicate the presence of certain biomarkers, with temperature checks could help identify individuals who may be infected with the virus, thus helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in a wide variety of public settings, including healthcare facilities, schools, workplaces, theme parks, stadiums and airports. The device is an armband with embedded light sensors and a small computer processor. The armband is wrapped around a persons bare left arm above the elbow during use. The sensors first obtain pulsatile signals from blood flow over a period of three to five minutes. Once the measurement is completed, the processor extracts some key features of the pulsatile signals, such as pulse rate, and feeds them into a probabilistic machine learning model that has been trained to make predictions on whether the individual is showing certain signals, such as hypercoagulation in blood. Hypercoagulation is known to be a common abnormality in COVID-19 patients. The result is provided in the form of different colored lights used to indicate if an individual is demonstrating certain biomarkers, or if the result is inconclusive.

The clinical performance of the Tiger Tech COVID Plus Monitor was studied in hospital and school settings. The hospital study, which was considered a validation study, enrolled 467 asymptomatic individuals, including 69 confirmed positive cases, and demonstrated that the Tiger Tech COVID Plus Monitor had a positive percent agreement (proportion of the COVID-19 positive individuals identified correctly by the device to possess certain biomarkers) of 98.6% and a negative percent agreement (proportion of the COVID-19 negative individuals identified correctly by the device to not possess certain biomarkers) of 94.5%. The school study, which was considered a confirmatory study, showed similar performance.

The Tiger Tech COVID Plus Monitor is not a diagnostic device and must not be used to diagnose or exclude SARS-CoV-2 infection. The device is intended for use on individuals without a fever. An individuals underlying condition may interfere with the COVID-19 related performance of the device and could lead to an incorrect screening result.

The FDA issued the EUA to Tiger Tech Solutions, Inc.

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines, and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nations food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

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03/19/2021

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Authorizes First Machine Learning-Based Screening Device to Identify Certain Biomarkers That May Indicate COVID-19...

United States Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) announced March 19 that Neighborhood Health Care Inc. in Cleveland and the Erie County Community Health Center are invited to join the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program over the next six weeks.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched this program to directly allocate novel coronavirus vaccine to HRSA-supported health centers to ensure that the nation's underserved communities and those disproportionately affected by COVID-19 are equitably vaccinated, according to a new release from Kaptur.

This designation will help Ohioans in Sandusky and Cleveland get vaccinated as soon as possible that is a triumph for our community after more than a year of living with the pandemic, she said. Im immensely thankful for those at the Erie County Health Center and Neighborhood Health Care for their selfless work helping to vaccinate our neighbors here in northern Ohio.

"Thanks to them and with federal support, we are going to beat this virus together.

With assistance from the Health Resource Services Administration and the CDC, the Erie County Community Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, will now expand COVID-19 vaccinations to those in our region here in Ohio, said Pete Schade, Erie County health commissioner. We are extremely fortunate to be a provider with the ability to order vaccine direct from the supplier.

"This type of activity will continue to assure our communities that all people will have an opportunity to become fully vaccinated against the virus. We will join our stakeholders in promoting vaccine and administering it to all as we fight this pandemic together.

Neighborhood Family Practice is grateful for the opportunity to get more vaccines into the arms of our patients as they are often the most at risk for COVID-19 and have struggled to get sufficient vaccination opportunities, said Dr. Chad Garven, associate medical director at Neighborhood Health Care Inc.

Today, an additional 700 health centers were invited to participate in the next phase of the program and include those that serve high proportions of low income and minority patients, provide services to rural/frontier populations, operate Tribal/Urban Indian Health Programs, and/or utilize mobile vans to deliver services.

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Kaptur announces that Erie County and Cleveland health centers join COVID-19 vaccination program - The Morning Journal

A year into the pandemic, infection rates are falling. Hospitals are quieter; morgues are emptier. Emboldened by vaccines, were dropping our masks and stepping closer. Slowly were reopening indoor dining, theaters, museumsand schools.

Will we declare victory over COVID-19?

No, say public health experts. But well negotiate an uneasy truce. Rather than completely eliminating the virus, we can create a strict containment strategy, building public health bulwarks to help fend off an enemy that is wily, adaptive and enduring.

This means accepting a certain level of risk as society returns to normal, they add.

Heres what we can call victory: Learning how to live with this virus in a way that allows us to continue to enjoy life, says Dr. John Swartzberg of UC Berkeleys School of Public Health.

Over time as vaccines improve, death tolls fall and we adopt new behaviors, like wearing masks when were sick well accommodate it, just as we do with other deadly infectious diseases, he says.

In the past year, there have been unimaginable strides against the virus. With accelerated plans for manufacturing vaccines, President Joe Biden now promises enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May. Some states, such as Texas, are already racing to fully reopen.

But there is increasing consensus that COVID-19 is here to stay, causing intermittent, limited outbreaks in the U.S. and other countries with well-developed vaccination programs but causing significant ongoing disease in parts of the world where access to vaccines is more limited.

Unless youve completely eradicated a disease, youre always at risk for having an outbreak, says Stanford infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Yvonne Maldonado.

Why is eradication so hard? Its because pathogens, once established, hardly ever go extinct.

Weve succeeded in eliminating only one major infectious killer: smallpox. A terrible disease that killed 30% of all victims, smallpox was last reported in 1977 in Somalia. Just two remnants of the virus, stored in tightly controlled government laboratories in the United States and Russia, survive.

To be sure, weve scored notable victories in conquering disease in specific geographic areas. In the U.S., there has been a declining trend of infectious disease. For example, the nation reported just 13 cases of measles and one isolated outbreak of mumps in 2020. Fewer than 10 Americans contract rubella each year; of these, everyone is infected while traveling overseas. The original SARS disease SARS-CoV-1 no longer haunts us.

But attempts to eliminate historic global killers such as hookworm, yellow fever and malaria have been frustrating failures. The polio eradication program is now in the 32nd year of what was intended to be a 12-year effort. Scientists have unsuccessfully sought an HIV vaccine ever since the virus was identified in 1984.

The easiest diseases to control are those that are quickly diagnosable or recognizable, according to the American Society of Microbiology. But COVID-19 is hidden, spreading before people get sick. And up to 40% of cases are surreptitious, causing no symptoms. Additionally, a COVID-19 diagnosis requires testing by skilled medical professionals.

A disease can also be readily controlled if, like polio, it lives only in humans and has no animal reservoir where it persists. Thats not COVID-19, which is presumed to have originated in bats.

Diseases that are geographically limited, like river blindness, can be pushed to the brink of extinction by a targeted campaign. But COVID-19 is nearly everywhere. It has spread to 219 countries and territories around the world, causing 118 million confirmed infections.

Also simpler are diseases that can be subdued by a single vaccine with life long immunity, like measles. We dont yet know how durable our COVID-19 vaccines will be.

With COVID-19, its definitely not about getting to zero risk. Because thats not feasible, Californias surgeon general Dr. Nadine Burke Harris said this past week.

So what is an acceptable number of deaths?

Its likely that well accede to a disease that behaves like influenza, public health experts say. While deadly, especially for elders, the flu isnt seen as a special threat that requires an exceptional societal response.

We just seem to take it, on faith, that every year theres going to be a flu epidemic, says Maldonado.

Dr. Joshua Adler, vice dean for clinical affairs at UCSF, imagines a day when the incidence of COVID declines to the level where we no longer need to have special processes. It becomes like another infectious disease thats part of our general environment.

We will simply have a number of patients that may have COVID, just like we have a number of patients that have flu, or severe herpes infection, or what have you, he says.

Thats still a far way off. California reported 137 deaths per 100,000 people due to COVID-19 as of March 8.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, thats nearly tenfold the rate of deaths 15.2 per 100,000 people caused by flu plus pneumonia in 2019, the last year those numbers were available.

Other infectious diseases are far lower: Respiratory Syncytial Virus, a common virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages, kills 2.1 to 6 per 100,000 people nationwide, according to an extensive National Institutes of Health study published in 2014. Diarrheal disease, such as rotavirus, kills 2.4 per 100,000 people nationwide; HIV/AIDS, 2.4; meningitis, 0.4; hepatitis, 0.29 and tuberculosis, 0.25, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In the meantime, we should set intermediate goals, says UC San Francisco epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford.

One goal is to prevent another surge of cases, so hospitals arent overwhelmed. Additionally, we need to offer better medications, so people who become infected rarely die. Currently, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 face nearly five times the risk of death than those with the flu, according to a major study published last December.

And when variants emerge, we must be poised to respond, Rutherford says.

Then, like influenza, new strains will fade into the background and become part of the milieu, transmitted every year but at much, much lower levels, he says.

Over time, the risk will recede, experts predict. Thats because the COVID-19 vaccines are better than flu vaccines, and can be promptly modified.

I am confident that things will get quite a bit better than they are today. Does that mean that you can live completely risk-free? I dont think so, says Adler. But it may be a low enough risk that most of us feel comfortable with it.

Eventually, so-called community immunity, or herd immunity, will protect us.

At that point when 70% to 90% of the population is protected through vaccination or prior illness it is much harder for the virus to move through a population. The risk to people who cannot get vaccinated drops dramatically. Thats when it feels safer to go back to our cherished gatherings. Think big weddings. Football games. Music festivals.

Right now, thats a challenging target. Why? Children account for about 22% of the population and they wont be vaccinated until clinical trials are completed later this year. Reluctant adults could represent another shortfall. According to U.S. Census data released in late January, about 14% of adults said they would probably not and 10% said they would definitely not get vaccinated.

Yet even as we work toward more complete vaccination, well slowly inch toward safety. Even partial herd immunity can save lives.

But managing our new relationship with COVID-19 will require constant monitoring, potential revaccination, treatment of isolated cases and rigorous contact tracing.

Its not over, says Adler, but its certainly heading in the right direction.

More:

When will we declare victory over COVID-19? - Marin Independent Journal

A year after the first coronavirus case was identified in the state, more and more Alaskans have received the COVID-19 vaccine, signaling a hopeful turning point in the pandemic.

By Friday, 206,877 people about 36% of Alaskans eligible for a shot had received at least their first dose, according to the states vaccine monitoring dashboard. At least 144,644 people about 25% of Alaskans 16 and older were considered fully vaccinated.

Now some newly vaccinated Alaskans are wondering: Whats safe and what isnt?

We spoke with some top public health officials in Alaska to see how theyre navigating life after vaccination a situation more residents are experiencing.

Most health officials said they were still cautious and still wearing their masks, and they believed the pandemic wasnt over just yet. They reflected on small moments of joy that they say wouldnt have been possible prior to getting vaccinated. They conveyed a sense of hope and relief that has accompanied their new status.

All had closely followed the new guidance recently issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about what fully vaccinated people can and cant do. The CDC considers individuals to be fully vaccinated once two weeks have passed since they received a second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

People approach their turn to receive a vaccination in their cars at Dempsey Anderson Ice Arena in Anchorage on Friday, March 19, 2021. (Anne Raup / ADN)

Additionally, the CDC says its OK for vaccinated people to visit an unvaccinated household indoors as long as none of the unvaccinated people are at a high risk for severe illness from the virus due to their age or health, since the data on whether the vaccines entirely prevent asymptomatic spread is still incomplete.

But on some issues, the agencys recommendations remain vague or cautious: For example, the CDC continues to recommend against medium or large-sized gatherings, but doesnt define what constitutes a gathering of each size.

The CDC is also still recommending against nonessential travel and encouraging mask-wearing and social distancing when possible, noting that its still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19.

All of the Alaska health officials the Daily News spoke with said they hoped the CDC would clarify and expand some of its recommendations soon.

Last weekend, Dr. Anne Zink went inside a shop to get her bike fixed something that she would have avoided prior to get vaccinated.

So although it was a small thing, it was just great to see everyone again, and to laugh and to hear what their lives have been like and to get that fixed, she said. A little boring errand ended up being a great joy.

Zink, Alaskas top doctor, became a household name this year, known for her role helping lead the states coronavirus response.

She has been fully vaccinated for about two months, and she said it feels a little like rock climbing with a rope to catch her fall.

Pre-vaccination was like solo free climbing, without a safety net, and trying to make your best decisions as you can, she said. And now it feels kind of like youre top-roping. Its not perfect rocks can still fall, things can still happen. But it just feels like theres a really significant added level of protection.

Zink said shes still been cautious even after receiving the vaccine: She still wears her mask when shes in public, avoids large gatherings and hasnt eaten out at a restaurant, yet. Case counts in Anchorage and other parts of the state are still high, she pointed out. But in many small ways, life feels different.

She has also started hugging her fully vaccinated friends, and she said she feels good about getting haircuts and other one-on-one indoor interactions where both people are wearing a mask.

Zinks still having a little trouble adjusting to the possibility of having vaccinated friends come over to her house, even though the CDC says thats allowable. On the other hand, she said shes also struggling with the CDCs recommendation on traveling which is still to postpone nonessential travel, even if youre vaccinated.

I think that post-vaccine, particularly while while wearing good protection while flying, doesnt seem as high risk, she said. She misses her now fully vaccinated parents, who live in Colorado, and hopes to be able to visit them soon.

I have not seen them during this whole pandemic, and theyre getting older, she said. So I am really looking forward to traveling.

Buttons reading, I am vaccinated against COVID-19 , rest in a bag on a table at the Blood Bank of Alaska in Anchorage on March 10, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Joe McLaughlin, an epidemiologist with the state, has been fully vaccinated for a couple weeks.

Its a real relief, he said. I think weve all been struggling with isolation. And to be able to interact with your family and friends in a way you havent been able to do for the last year, it just feels great.

For McLaughlin, many of the joys of being vaccinated show up in quiet moments. One recent afternoon, he left work midday to go skiing at Arctic Valley Ski Area for the first time this winter.

I was so excited to get to ski and get a ride up the mountain, and to ski down, he said. I would have not done that prior to getting vaccinated, I would have thought that was too high risk.

Hes also been feeling more comfortable getting outside and exercising with a small group of friends, especially the ones who are fully vaccinated, and having a small number of vaccinated friends over for dinner.

There are a few things hed like to do but doesnt feel quite ready for yet. He wants to visit his fully vaccinated parents in Florida but thinks the potential risk of picking up the virus while traveling is too great at this time.

I know these vaccines are incredibly effective, around 95% effective for the two mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, he said. But that still means theres a 5% chance of getting infected, and I wouldnt want to risk that for my parents who are both older and at an elevated risk.

Hes also not comfortable gathering in groups of larger than 10, or eating out at a restaurant.

I dont plan on (eating out) anytime real soon, he said. I know some people may feel comfortable doing that, and I respect that. But I personally feel like I want to wait until our case counts drop more, and we get higher vaccine coverage rates.

A woman waits in the monitoring area at the Blood Bank of Alaska after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in Anchorage on March 10, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Getting vaccinated was surprisingly emotional, said Dr. Ellen Hodges, chief of staff for the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp., a tribal health organization that serves a primarily roadless region of Southwest Alaska.

The vaccine represents protection against a virus responsible for a massive outbreak in the region, Hodges said. And it means protection for her as well as the people she works with.

One of the things thats hard about having providers that work for you is that youre asking them to expose themselves and take risks, Hodges said. And you didnt have really anything except for a mask to protect them.

The biggest change for Hodges post-vaccination was the ability to get together with small groups of friends or family and not have the gathering be dangerous, Hodges said.

But that doesnt mean it felt normal initially.

After months of masking and social distancing, her first dinner with two others felt weird.

The whole time, it didnt feel quite real almost, Hodges said. They were eating together, unmasked. It was a simple meal, and what she enjoyed most was being able to see other peoples faces.

While Hodges said she isnt comfortable going out to eat just yet, she said shes really looking forward to getting back to restaurants once vaccines become widespread across the state.

She also traveled to Anchorage recently, and said shes looking forward to more travel in the future.

Dr. Bruce Chandler, a medical officer with Anchorage Health Department, said that his work at the health department means hes always aware of which clusters of COVID-19 are going around the city, and that hyperawareness makes him extra cautious even though hes now fully vaccinated.

Weve still got a lot of COVID moving around through the community, he said. But I will say that probably for the last nine months, Ive been primarily living through Walmart and Fred Meyer curbside pickup, and really avoiding anything else. Now Ive got my courage up, and I can go into Costco and buy cat food and kitty litter.

A woman writes the date of a patient's second Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine on a sticker for them as a reminder at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)

Chandler says hes an introvert, so in some ways, he hasnt missed too much over the last year.

Still: I felt a big sense of relief when I got the first shot, a potentially life-changing event, he said. Its been a very, very stressful year for many, many people. Getting vaccinated takes some of that stress away.

Although Chandler himself hasnt felt the need to dine in at a restaurant, he was asked recently whether a group of younger people who have all been vaccinated can feel good about going out for a pizza.

I think thats a reasonable thing for people to do, given how well the currently available vaccines protect against severe illness, he said.

Chandler said hes still waiting for the CDC to clarify whether their guidance applies to a workplace, or a health care institution, where all employees are fully vaccinated. His overall stance is for Alaskans to err on the careful side for a little while longer until more Alaskans are vaccinated and less virus is circulating.

Even as we return to regular life, its good to still be cautious, he said. Its not over yet, but were looking a lot better than we were in November.

The rest is here:

What can you do after getting the COVID-19 vaccine? Here's how Alaska's top public health experts are adjusting. - Anchorage Daily News