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Here’s how mRNA viruses mutate like COVID-19, and why it’s hard to develop vaccines for certain viruses.
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After more than 24 hours of debate, the Democratic-controlled Senate on Saturday passed President Biden’s 9 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
The bill would provide સી 1,400 in direct payments to millions of Americans, billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and funding to help reopen schools and colleges. That would increase the federal unemployment benefit to ડ 300 per week by the end of August Gust, below the બિ 400 increase in the original bill.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Drugmaker Merck said Saturday that experimental antiviral treatments being developed with biotechnology company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have led to a rapid reduction in infectious viruses in people with early COVD-19.
The drug, called Molnupiravir, was tested in more than 200 non-hospitalized Covid-19 patients, and patients treated with the drug had a faster reduction in the infectious virus than the placebo group, Merck says.
The findings are promising and if supported by additional studies, said Dr. William Fisher, a study researcher and professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Medicine.
Also in the news:
– The Dalai Lama, an 85-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, has received his first shot of a coronavirus vaccine at a hospital in the northern Indian mountain town of Dharamsala.
– The White House announced that in Atlanta and Cleveland, two new mass vaccination sites will soon open, each with the capacity to provide 6,000 daily coronavirus shots.
10 Alberts will continue to require Texas shoppers to wear masks in his stores, then on March 10 the state will no longer need to cover his face.
-Gov. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that Andrew Cuomo’s administration successfully pressured the New York Department of Health to hold nursing homes accountable in a state report released in July last year for releasing a full count of New York-19 deaths. .
Viral The creator of a viral GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than, 100,000 is being sued by a California woman who embarrassed Barista San Naline, who told her to wear a mask inside a Starbucks store in San Diego.
અધિકારી California authorities are allowing people to participate in Major League Baseball games and other sports, go to Disneyland and watch live performances in limited capacities from April 1.
📈 Today’s number: U.S. There are more than 28.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 522,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global average: more than 116 million cases and 2.57 million deaths. More than 114.1 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and about 85 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we are reading: The Valdovinos family has lost five family members to COVID-19. Here it is that the strict Knight Massachusetts family is honoring those they lost.
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Patti Ness, 62, has not dared to set foot inside a retail store since last March, as her obesity puts her at risk for serious COVID-19. Due to his illness, he is eligible to receive the vaccine and has an appointment for his first dose on Wednesday. While she waits to be vaccinated, she is also disappointed Some Americans have criticized obese people who prefer to be vaccinated.
“It’s a misconception … weight isn’t always under your control,” said Ness, who is also chairman of the Obesity Action Coalition. “Like many diseases, it involves personal responsibility but it is not the end. Eating less sugar and moving more – the answer to which I have heard all my life – is not the answer.”
About 40% of adult Americans have obesity, according to studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2018. Studies show that obese people get worse results from COVID-19 than others with lower body mass index (BMI). read more.
According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday, people with intellectual disabilities have a “significant increase” risk of dying from COVID-19.
Researchers with Jefferson Health in Philadelphia reviewed data from nearly 65 million patients – including about 1,000,000 with a recorded diagnosis of intellectual disability – including 7,547 health care institutions and found that intellectual disability is a COVID-19. The strongest independent risk factor to present with Covid-19 is the diagnosis for mortality and the strongest independent risk factor, except age.
People with intellectual disabilities may be at higher risk of exposure to COVID-19 for a variety of reasons, the researchers said, due to regular contact with support personnel or the inability of social distance due to social sensitivity issues that make it difficult to wear a face mask. The epidemic has made it difficult for people with intellectual disabilities to get the health care support they need, the researchers said.
Leading author Dr. “We need to understand more about what is happening to these patients,” Jonathan Glison said in a statement. “I believe these patients and their carers should be given priority for vaccination and healthcare services. We need to focus on why we failed this vulnerable population, and how we can serve them during this health crisis and in the future. “
The Tennessee Advisory Committee was tasked with deciding how to get the KVID-19 vaccine that prison inmates in the state were at higher risk, but concluded that prioritizing them for inoculation could be a “public relations nightmare.”
Outcome: Prisoners are among the last group to be vaccinated in the state, however, the epidemic vaccine planning stakeholder group concluded that “if left untreated they will be a vector of normal population transmission,” according to records from the panel’s closed door meetings by the Associated Press. Received. To date, there is no firm timeline for prison vaccine rollouts.
The Tennessee debate reflects the issue facing states nationwide as they roll out life-saving vaccines: whether the latter thinking by many is to prioritize the best-viewed population, different from the people, and not even appropriate at worst. Medical experts have argued since the onset of the epidemic that inmates are at high risk of epidemic infections due to their very close contact with each other and their low capacity for social distance.
– Associated Press
Gov. Reagan’s schools must reopen for individual or hybrid education by mid-April, Gov. According to an executive order issued to Kate Brown on Friday.
The order, which is forthcoming, requires each district to give individual instruction to K-5 students by March 29 and, in areas where counties complete the COVID-19 metric, students in grades 6-12 by April 19.
“After the weeks of March 29 and April 19, all Oregon public schools will operate under either a full-site no-site or hybrid instructional model when the counties meet or exceed the Oregon Advisory COVID-19 metrics,” the governor’s office said in a statement. The office said in a news release. “Individual students or parents who want to live in broad-distance education, or who need health care, can do so.”
– Jordan Brown and Natalie Patel, Register-Guard
Citing the widespread availability of vaccines and the declining number of cases of COVID-19, Govt. Doug Ducie announced Friday that he would ease emergency restrictions previously imposed on the business.
While the requirements for masks and physical distance will not change, businesses including bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters and water parks can now operate at full capacity. Can also select spring training and major league games after submitting safety plans and receiving approval.
Ducie said in a statement with a surprise announcement, two days after he ordered schools to return to individual education by March 15.
– Maria Poleta, Arizona Republic
Surveys show that Americans are no less hesitant about the COVID vaccine
Just six months ago, about half of Americans surveyed by the AA Pew Research Center said they were either strict or unlikely to be vaccinated against Covid-1. A new Pew survey found that 30% of Americans have dropped by double digits in a month, saying they are not currently planning to be vaccinated.
About %%% of Americans say they already have or are considering a vaccine, the survey found.
The number of people hesitating about the vaccine has been steadily declining over the months. In September, 49% of Americans in the Pew survey were unwilling to get a shot at the time. In November, that number dropped to 39%. The latest survey, taken in February, dropped to 30%.
Those who have opposed the vaccine, citing concerns about side effects and the rapid pace of their development, first put different reasons to see how effective they are in fighting the disease.
– Crystal Hayes
Nine U.S. Supreme Court judges have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, a court spokesman said Friday.
The attempt took several weeks: the court said in January that the judges were in the process of vaccinating them, and CNN reported in January that Chief Justice John Na Roberts had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The news comes a year after the court stopped making personal face-to-face arguments over the epidemic. Those arguments are now being put on the telephone.
Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg confirmed Friday that vaccinations are now complete for all nine judges.
– John Fritz
A second line of criticism was drawn after a report by the Cuomo administration on the death of COVID-19 in newsing houses was stripped of the total death count in a state report late Thursday night.
A report released by the Department of Health last summer criticized hospitals for not including nursing home deaths, which led to a stricter under-calculation.
Now the reason is even clearer: In a report in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Cuomo’s administration pressured the health department not to include a full death count thanks to nursing homes. Instead, the report suggested that more than 200 residents of the nursing home, who were residents of those homes at the time, died at the hospital.
Democratic governor by lower count. Andrew Cuomo more firmly endorsed the state’s response to the epidemic, which killed more than 48,000 New Yorkers. He wrote a book in October that his image of reducing the number of state deaths and cases by government action could be burned.
– Joseph Specter, USA Today Network in New York
Rochelle Valensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that a new report on the association between facial masks and the COVID-19 case and death “warns of the dangers of issuing premature mask orders,” Rochelle Valensky said Friday.
A recent report found that the mask command was associated with a decrease in COVID-19 cases and an increase in deaths while dining reopening was associated with an increase. According to the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report:
- Mandating masks were associated with a reduction in COVID-19 cases and death growth rates daily within 20 days of the order being implemented.
- Permission to re-open restaurants for indoor or outdoor dining is associated with an increase in the daily case growth rate within 41 to 100 days after the ban is lifted and an increase in the daily mortality growth rate 61-100 days after implementation.
The study looked at county-level data on masks and restaurant orders and said the mask mandates apply to 73.6% of 3,142 U.S. counties from March to December 2020, while .979.9 percent of U.S. counties were allowed to open for non-premium dining at the same time. Giving. Duration.
– Ryan W. Miller and Crystal Hayes
Contributors: Jordan Culver, USA Today; Associated Press
