CDC warns against Thanksgiving travel as Covid-19 cases spike
Former FDA head: pandemic “will run its course” for 6-8 weeks before vaccine has impact
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottleib said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Friday morning that the coronavirus pandemic will “run its course” for six to eight weeks before any benefit from any vaccine candidate’s early approval will be seen in the public health data.
Gottleib, a member of Pfizer’s board of directors, said the pharmaceutical giant plans to file on Friday for an emergency use authorization [EUA] of its experimental vaccine. The EUA Pfizer seeks, Gottleib said, would allow distribution of the vaccine candidate prior to its full clinical approval.
He predicted that a vaccine’s EUA wouldn’t begin to draw down coronavirus rates until next year, since the Pfizer vaccine has two doses that must be given three weeks apart, and full immunity is not established until shortly after the second dose.
If an EUA for Pfizer’s vaccine were to be issued in mid-December and the most at-risk got their first shots then, Gottleib said, they would not be immune until after their second shot in mid-January.
For the rest of the population, Gottleib said he expected that the vaccine’s emergency use authorization would be amended throughout 2021 to gradually expand eligibility, which he predicted would be available to the general population in the second or third quarter of 2021.
Practical hurdles, cultural distrust in Native communities could hamper vaccine distribution
When Timothy Nuvangyaoma, chairman of the Hopi Tribe, heard there were two coronavirus vaccines that both showed promising data of more than 90 percent efficacy, he felt initial relief that soon transitioned to cautious skepticism.
That’s because the logistic and cultural challenges of delivering a Covid-19 vaccine with precise temperature requirements and two-dose administration to members of the Hopi Tribe are vast: Hopi often live in remote locations and only one-third of the population has reliable means of transportation, according to officials with knowledge of vaccine distribution planning. Hopi lands span more than 1.5 million acres and encompass parts of both Coconino and Navajo counties in northeastern Arizona.
There is a long-simmering cultural mistrust of vaccines and clinical trials felt by tribal communities as a result of historical trauma, making their skepticism about the safety of vaccines more pronounced.
“There’s always that reluctance as a Native American,” Nuvangyaoma said. “I have to make sure that it’s going to be able to help. And I don’t want to get people’s hopes up.”
3 New York Giants football players sidelined by positive tests
Three New York Giants tested have positive for Covid-19, the NFL team announced on Friday.
The Giants did not immediately identify the players, but the team said they were “immediately notified to self-isolate, and the contact tracing process is underway.”
The team does not have a game this weekend and will be back in action a week from Sunday, traveling to play the Cincinnati Bengals.
A drastic six-day lockdown in South Australia was triggered by an individual who lied to contact tracers, according to South Australia State Premier Steven Marshall.
“To say that I am fuming about the actions of this individual is an absolute understatement,” Marshall said.
He went on to say that they are still trying to locate thousands of people who may have had contact at the Woodville Pizza Bar in Adelaide.
Stanford faculty pass resolution condemning Scott Atlas
Stanford faculty passed a resolution Thursday night condemning Dr. Scott Atlas, President Donald Trump’s top medical adviser on the coronavirus pandemic.
The resolution, introduced by members of the Faculty Senate Steering Committee and approved by 85 percent of the senate membership, specified six actions that Atlas has taken that “promote a view of Covid-19 that contradicts medical science.”
“Atlas’s disdain for established medical knowledge violates medical ethics,” they write. “His pronouncements are damaging Stanford’s reputation and academic standing.”
Atlas posted on Twitter on Sunday that Michigan residents should “rise up” after the governor issued new restrictions. He earlier tweeted false information about wearing masks.
After contacts get Covid, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller won’t isolate
Two people tested positive for coronavirus after having close contact with acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, who will not go into self-isolation as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a Pentagon spokesperson.
Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for policy, tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday and twice since, chief Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.
Tata was tested because the Lithuanian Embassy informed the Pentagon that its defense minister, Raimundas Karoblis, had tested positive for Covid-19.
Karoblis visited the Pentagon over several days in the last week, where he met with Miller, Tata and Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite.
Miller and the others won’t isolate themselves, the Pentagon spokesperson said:
“As CDC COVID mitigation guidelines were followed during the Acting Secretary’s bilateral meeting with the minister, as well as meetings with Mr. Tata, Acting Secretary of Defense Miller is not quarantining,” the Pentagon said.
U.S. crosses 190,000 new daily Covid-19 cases
More than 193,000 people reported new Covid-19 infections in the U.S. Thursday, a new record. County and state health departments across the country reported 1,945 deaths.
According to NBC News’ tally, case counts have exceeded 100,000 for more than two weeks now. In the last week, an average 165,665 cases have been confirmed per day, up more than double from the average 80,669 cases per day the U.S. was averaging four weeks ago.
Several records were set Thursday on the state level:
- Iowa reported 39 Covid-19 deaths, tying its record set the day before.
- Kentucky reported 3,637 cases
- Maryland had 2,912 cases
- 72 reported dead in Minnesota
- 28 deaths in Nebraska
- 2,416 cases in Nevada
- 528 cases in New Hampshire
- 4,491 new cases in New Jersey
- 3,665 cases in New Mexico
- Oregon reported 20 dead
- Vermont reported 149 new cases
- Wyoming reported 21 deaths
