Mixed signals on vaccine expectations
The timeline for a coronavirus vaccine gets murkier by the day as political leaders and pharmaceutical companies can’t seem to agree on when a COVID-19 vaccine will be ready for public use.
President Donald Trump said on Fox & Friends Tuesday that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready “in a matter of weeks.” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CBS News the company will know if its candidate vaccine works by the end of October. And the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said a vaccine could be ready for public use in November or December, according to state TV.
Billionaire Bill Gates said Tuesday he sees a slim chance drugmakers might get enough data by the end of October to apply for emergency approval for their COVID-19 vaccines, the Associated Press reported. But he expressed confidence that several vaccines would get approval by the beginning of 2021. Meanwhile, Northeastern University researchers found if a vaccine was hoarded by rich countries instead of distributed equally based on population proportions, it could cause twice as many deaths.
By the numbers
New case records were set in North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Monday. Record numbers of deaths were reported in Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee and Guam. The U.S. has reported more than 6.5 million cases and more than 195,000 deaths. Globally, there have been more than 29 million cases and more than 930,000 fatalities.
Deaths linked to Maine wedding grow
At least seven people have died in connection to an outbreak that continues to sicken people in Maine following a wedding reception over the summer that violated state virus guidelines, public health authorities said. The August reception at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket is linked to more than 175 confirmed cases. Maine authorities have identified overlaps between the reception and outbreaks elsewhere in the state. Officials have said a staff member from a Madison rehabilitation center, the site of six of the seven deaths, attended the event.
Virus may have been in US in December
Researchers at UCLA say the virus may have been in the country as early as December, weeks before U.S. health officials announced the nation’s first case, according to a study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research this week. Researchers analyzing electronic health records found that there was a significant increase in patients with coughs and acute respiratory failure at UCLA Health hospitals and clinics beginning in late December. This rise in patients with these symptoms continued through February and represents an unexpected 50% increase in such cases when compared with the same period in previous years, according to the study.
NYC lockdown led to 70% drop in spread
Mandated stay-at-home measures contributed to a roughly 70% reduction in the transmission of COVID-19 in New York City during March to June, according to scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the city’s public health department. Widespread use of face coverings contributed to an additional 7% reduction in transmission and a 20% reduction among those aged 65 and older during the first month face covering was mandated in public places.
The study appears ahead of peer review in the preprint server medRxiv, however, researchers said it falls in line with previous modeling studies estimating lockdowns reduced transmission in Wuhan, China, Italy and France.