It's amazing how much is still changing...for better and worse. Since my last post, the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for kids 5 and up, and boosters have been okayed for everyone over 18. Pfizer and Merck both have pills to treat COVID that may be authorized soon. But cases are rising again...and the holidays are coming...and people are still being stupid.
Mon., Oct. 18
- Gen. Colin Powell died from complications of COVID, despite being vaccinated. He was 85 and had multiple myeloma and Parkinson's disease, but antivaxxers cited his death as proof vaccines don't work.
- Non-human primates at the National Zoo, including seven orangutans and a western lowland gorilla, were vaccinated against the coronavirus with special shots designed for animals.
- Centner Academy, a private school in Miami, told parents that if they vaccinated their children, the children would have to stay home for 30 days after each shot. The directive was based on misleading and false claims that vaccinated people could pass on so-called harmful effects of the shot and have a “potential impact” on unvaccinated students and staff.
- One in three families with young kids was struggling to find affordable childcare.
- The FDA approved boosters of half-dose Moderna and full-dose Johnson & Johnson for over-65 and immuno-compromised people. It also authorized getting a booster of a different vaccine, especially if you got Johnson & Johnson first.
- Country artist Travis Tritt reiterated on Tuesday night to Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he was “putting my money where my mouth is” by not playing at places requiring vaccination, masks, or negative coronavirus tests.
- There were 28 million U.S. children aged 5 to 11. The Biden administration said, the United States had acquired enough doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to immunize all of those kids for free.
- The FDA was considering whether to lower the age eligibility for boosters to 40, a change that might take effect next month.
- Consumer rights advocacy organization Public Citizen released a report detailing how pharmaceutical company Pfizer, maker of a widely used mRNA coronavirus vaccine, was able to “shift risk and maximize profits.”
- Many more men than women had died of COVID-19. According to a study by the Brookings Institution, as of the end of August, 65,000 more men than women in the United States had been killed by the virus. The gap was most pronounced among middle-aged people. Men between the ages of 45 and 64 were 1.8 times more likely to die than women.
- A special investigative committee in Brazil's senate accused President Jair Bolsonaro of crimes against humanity because the pandemic response was so disastrous.
- Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tested positive for the coronavirus.
- Adjusted for population, five northern states — Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and North Dakota — had the highest daily new cases, suggesting the virus may be spreading as people gather inside to avoid the cooler outdoor temperatures.
- Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso will conduct to test the efficacy of ivermectin in treating COVID.
- India had given one billion doses of vaccine, with about half the population having received at least one dose.
- Pfizer and BioNTech announced initial results of a Phase 3 study they conducted that found a booster dose of their coronavirus vaccine was 95.6 percent effective in protecting people who had already received two doses of the vaccine against COVID-19.
- With Russia enduring its worst wave of the pandemic, setting new grim records in new daily cases and deaths, Moscow announced a lockdown — a move the Kremlin had previously said it would avoid at all costs.
- The coronavirus pandemic could “easily drag on deep into 2022″ because of disparities in vaccine access between rich and poor nations, according to Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to the World Health Organization.
- The CDC signed off on Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters for those at risk of severe illness and said people could get a shot different from their original one.
- Pfizer and BioNTech released reports showing that their coronavirus vaccine was 91 percent effective in a trial of about 4,500 children.
- The White House Vaccine Task Force stopped a plan by health officials to donate vaccines near their expiration to Mexico because, it said, the vaccines belonged to the U.S. federal government.
- Japan and South Korea avoided complete lockdowns, instead relying on the cooperation of residents to wear masks and businesses there to close.
- Pharmacies experienced a rush as a throng of booster seekers, many of whom had gotten Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, sought additional shots hours after federal officials approved Johnson & Johnson and Moderna boosters.
- As many in the United States sought a third shot, some Americans abroad were still struggling to find a first vaccine dose.
- The Oakland Zoo was one of the first to vaccinate its animals against the coronavirus, but others were moving to do the same. The San Diego Zoo, the Denver Zoo, the St. Louis Zoo, and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo all started vaccinating some animals, while the Nashville Zoo and Maryland Zoo were waiting on vaccine shipments from Zoetis, the manufacturer.
- Amid a shortage of at-home coronavirus tests, the Biden administration announced $70 million in funding to help manufacturers more quickly get authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
- Moderna announced that its data shows a strong response of virus-fighting antibodies from the company's vaccine in children ages 6 to 11.
- Arizona's seven-day average of COVID deaths per 100,000 people increased by 138 percent last week.
- Massachusetts extended the school mask mandate to mid-January.
- An FDA advisory panel recommended emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 5-11.
- The CDC added mental health disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia, to its list of high-risk conditions that make someone more likely to be hospitalized or die from the disease. The move could make millions of people eligible for vaccine booster shots based on mental health diagnosis alone.
- The U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck agreed to share its formula for its promising new COVID drug, molnupiravir, with a nonprofit so that other companies can make it globally available. Merck said the pill can cut hospitalizations and deaths by half among high-risk patients.
- The Trump administration could have saved more than 130,000 American lives with swifter action and better messaging on the coronavirus, the White House’s former coronavirus response coordinator told congressional investigators this month. Instead, Deborah Birx said, Trump officials were “distracted” by the 2020 election and ignored recommendations to curb infections.
- Some immunocompromised people who got the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines can get a fourth shot, the CDC said.
- New coronavirus infections in the United States had dropped nearly 60 percent since a September spike brought on by the more-contagious delta variant. The seven-day average of infections stood at about 69,000 for the past week, reflecting a 58 percent drop from the latest surge’s peak around Sept. 13, when the average for that week was 164,475.
- Supply-chain gridlock related to the pandemic was getting worse, despite the Biden administration's efforts to get cargo moving again.
- Facebook knew it had a misinformation problem when it came to the pandemic. Its researchers studied the issue deeply, producing large internal reports on what kinds of users were most likely to share falsehoods. But the social media giant didn’t share what it knew with policymakers, even as they demanded it do so.
- A judge denied a request from a New York City police union to temporarily halt Mayor Bill de Blasio’s order requiring all municipal employees, including law enforcement officials, to receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by later this week or face unpaid leave.
- Sarah came home with a sore throat.
- A common antidepressant drug, fluvoxamine, showed promise in reducing hospitalizations and deaths from the disease, according to a study published in the Lancet journal.
- Nearly half of American teens said the pandemic hurt their academics in a recent poll.
- A House panel was investigating online telemedicine businesses that promoted the drug ivermectin and the malaria medication hydroxychloroquine, neither of which has FDA clearance for use in coronavirus patients.
- Sarah came home with a sore throat, fever, chills, and headache. I called the doctor, and we were able to get an appointment that evening! She was tested for COVID and strep, and negative for both.
- The FDA granted emergency-use authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids ages 5-11.
- The Supreme Court turned down a request from a group of Maine healthcare workers to block a state coronavirus vaccination mandate that does not contain an exception for religious objectors.
- The FDA postponed its decision on whether to authorize the Moderna vaccine for adolescents until at least January. Moderna said officials needed more time to evaluate the risk of a rare cardiac side effect (myocarditis) in kids ages 12 to 17.
- As some countries lifted pandemic restrictions, Russia remained a hotspot. The country's catastrophic fourth wave showed the consequences of a failing vaccination campaign.
- People with substance use disorders are more likely to get COVID. They have twice the rate of breakthrough infections. They have poorer overall health and socioeconomic factors that increase risk.
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for the virus.
- Tens of thousands of people at Shanghai Disneyland's Halloween party had to get checked for the coronavirus after one person who visited the park over the weekend tested positive for the virus. All their results came back negative.
- More than five million people had died from COVID worldwide. The global milestone came amid pleas for more-equitable distribution of vaccines, with calls for an airlift to redistribute excess doses from wealthy nations to the dozens of countries struggling to get vaccination campaigns underway.
- More than 1,000 Americans were still dying every day.
- Anti-vaccine mandate demonstrations were heating up in New York City. New York firefighters protested across the city against the mayor's mandate for municipal workers. More than a quarter of New York City firefighters weren't vaccinated.
- A CDC advisory panel recommended emergency-use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids ages 5-11. The CDC director signed off soon after.
- The CDC found that infection- and vaccine-induced immunity both lasted for at least six months but said vaccines are more consistent and provide a major antibody boost for people who’ve already been sick.
- The U.S. reached 750,000 deaths from COVID.
- The Oxford English Dictionary named “vax” as word of the year for 2021.
- New York City's police unions warned vaccine mandates would pull 10,000 officers off streets. So far, the number was 34.
- The federal government cut ties with Emergent BioSolution, a vaccine manufacturer at the heart of the Trump administration’s immunization campaign whose plant ruined millions of vaccine doses earlier this year.
- The medical journal BMJ published a study showing more than 28 million extra years of human life were lost in 2020, a year marked by the explosive spread of the virus. Male life expectancy in the U.S. was especially hard hit, with men losing 2.27 extra years, and women 1.61 years.
- Britain authorized Merck’s molnupiravir, the world’s first approval of the oral COVID treatment pill.
- Pfizer said its antiviral pill, Paxlovid, reduced risk of COVID hospitalization and death by 89 percent in high-risk people.
- The Biden administration formally released its workplace vaccine requirements, giving companies with 100 or more workers until the first week of January to either mandate employee vaccinations or require regular testing and mask-wearing.
- Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was diagnosed with the virus, and it was revealed he was not vaccinated, even though he had answered that question earlier in the fall by saying, "Yeah, I've been immunized" and failed to wear a mask when he should have. He blamed the "woke mob," said he believed in "bodily autonomy," and called criticism of his actions a witch hunt.
- A federal appeals court suspended the Biden administration’s new vaccine requirement for private companies, delivering a major blow for one of the White House’s signature attempts to increase the number of vaccinations to corral the pandemic.
- Parents were rushing to get their young kids vaccinated, and people were cheering at vaccination sites.
- More than 500,000 jobs were added in October, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%.
- Fully vaccinated international travelers from 33 countries, including Canada and Mexico, could finally enter the U.S. But those entering Canada — including Canadians returning from even the briefest of visits on the American side — had to present a negative coronavirus molecular (PCR) test result within 72 hours of arrival. The test could cost $200.
- Worldwide, 250 million people had had the virus.
- This was the deadline for federal employees to be fully vaccinated or risk termination.
- Wealthy countries had a more than 60% vaccination rate, while low-income nations had a 3% vaccination rate. To make matters worse, wealthy nations had stockpiles of vaccine they weren't using, some due to expire soon.
- Pfizer and BioNTech asked the FDA to approve boosters for ages 18 and up. Recent results from Israel showed younger people were losing immunity after two doses. Boosters diminished chances of illness and hospitalization.
- A study showed unvaccinated Texans were 40 times as likely to die of COVID as those fully vaccinated.
- The inflation rate hit 6%, the highest in 30 years. Prices had risen 15% overall during the pandemic.
- A federal judge ruled that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates in schools violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, a decision that could have national implications as several other states were embroiled in legal battles over face-covering requirements for children.
- The Biden administration planned to invest $785 million in communities hit hardest by the coronavirus. The goal was to eliminate some of the healthcare disparities that made the pandemic worse for people of color, people with disabilities, and people living in rural or low-income areas.
- Moderna and the National Institutes of Health clashed over the patent for the company's coronavirus vaccine. The NIH said three of its scientists helped invent the vaccine's key component. Moderna, which took NIH money for vaccine development, rejected that view, saying its workers alone invented the shot
- More than 900,000 kids ages 5-11 got shots in their first week of eligibility.
- Germany was seeing its highest rate of infections during the pandemic, with 50,000 new cases a day.
- Colorado and other Mountain states had increasing case numbers. In Colorado, where cases were surging, the governor unilaterally declared everyone 18 and older eligible for a booster and ordered pharmacists not to deny anyone. California officials took similar action, urging all adults to get a booster and telling healthcare providers not to turn them away.
- Cases were rising in Vermont, up 42% in the last seven days.
- A federal appeals court in New Orleans halted the Biden administration’s vaccine or testing requirement for private businesses, delivering another political setback to one of the White House’s signature public health policies.
- During the pandemic, "trip stacking" became a thing: people made multiple bookings at the same time, to have back-up trips when one was canceled.
- Nationwide, booster shots were most popular in states with high infections, low vaccination rates and scant public health mandates.
- As the coronavirus ripped across the country in early 2020, members of the Trump administration repeatedly interfered with the CDC's efforts to get the word out and protect the public, six current and former health officials told congressional investigators. The information shed new light on how the Trump administration undermined those in government who were best equipped to manage the nation's response during the pandemic's critical early stages.
- Italy was showing what one of the Western Hemisphere's strictest vaccine mandates has accomplished in the fight against the pandemic. In the two months since Italian officials rolled out government-issued health passes for the nation's workers, vaccination coverage had ticked up by 4.4 percentage points, more than any other Western European Union member in that period.
- The Great Resignation continued: A record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September amid rising coronavirus cases.
- The FDA announced the recall of more than 2.2 million of Ellume’s at-home coronavirus tests because of reported issues with false positive results.
- We went to the cabin for one last time in 2021...to rake leaves.
- Under orders from the Oklahoma governor, the state's National Guard defied a Pentagon policy mandating that all service members get the coronavirus vaccine, allowing personnel to decline immunization without fear of retribution.
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called a special legislative session dubbed “Keep Florida Free” to consider four bills aimed at blocking employer-issued coronavirus vaccine mandates. The bills would increase penalties for local governments, public and private businesses, and others that require vaccination – or masks in schools.
- Austria — which was seeing a surge in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations — ordered millions of unvaccinated people into lockdown. The country, which was among the least vaccinated in the European Union, recently reported more than 13,000 new cases. Now, unvaccinated adults and children ages 12 and older could leave home only for essential reasons such as work, doctor visits or grocery store runs.
- Dr. Fauci said fully vaccinated families could "feel good" about gathering for the holidays.
- Cases were rising in the Northeast and Midwest.
- Pfizer asked the FDA to authorize Paxlovid, its antiviral treatment for people at high risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19. The five-day pill regimen cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89 percent in a clinical trial.
- Pfizer agreed to share its license for Paxlovid so the drug could be manufactured more widely around the globe. Merck did the same for its COVID treatment molnupiravir last month.
- Three snow leopards in a Nebraska zoo died of complications from COVID, illustrating that even animals were at risk.
- Despite President Biden's vaccine mandate, roughly 4,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents and employees — or about 20 percent — had yet to roll up their sleeves.
- States were rolling back waivers that allowed telehealth visits during the pandemic.
- A growing number of state and local officials were trying to get ahead of rising caseloads by bucking federal restrictions on who could get vaccine booster shots and expanding eligibility. Following California's lead, officials in Colorado, West Virginia, Arkansas, New York City, and several other places had over the past week endorsed boosters for all adults. Governors of Maine and Vermont announced anyone over 18 could get a booster.
- Gov. Baker announced anyone over 18 could get a booster. Massachusetts led the nation in vaccine administration: 83% of residents had received one dose, and 70% were fully vaccinated.
- Pres. Biden announced the government would buy 10 million courses of Paxlovid, Pfizer’s COVID treatment.
- About 2.6 million kids under 12 had received their first dose.
- University of Arizona evolutionary virologist Michael Worobey, who said earlier this year that a "lab leak" should be investigated as a possible source of the coronavirus, contended the evidence pointed overwhelmingly toward the Huanan Seafood Market.
- The FDA and the CDC director approved Pfizer and Moderna booster shots for everyone over 18 six months after their last shot. I made an appointment for Dec. 3.
- In late October, Fauci's office was barraged by thousands of angry messages sparked by an online campaign, so many that his assistant had to stop answering the phone for two weeks. Some 3,600 calls came in during a 36-hour period, many of them spurred by a false claim that the agency Fauci leads, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was involved in cruel medical experiments on beagles. It was a major distraction for his staff, which had to divert attention from pandemic efforts to tamp down the misinformation and tighten security.
- Thanksgiving was less than a week away, and experts said it would probably make for the biggest holiday travel surge of the pandemic era.
- With cases climbing across Europe, Austria took the extraordinary step of mandating vaccines for everyone eligible, becoming the continent's first country to do so.
- Almost 1 in 3 healthcare workers were not fully vaccinated as of mid-September, a new study found.
As we head into the holidays, a fifth wave seems inevitable. With only 60% of Americans fully vaccinated, Thanksgiving could easily be a super-spreader event. I have little faith in humankind at this point. The unvaccinated are going to gather regardless of experts' entreaties not to.
I'm thankful everyone is our family believes in science and has been vaccinated. Depending on how Mom is feeling, we may be able to have our traditional Christmas gathering at her house. We will at least be able to have Christmas Eve at our house.
We'll continue to be careful...and hope others come to their senses.
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