Moderna says no vaccine until at least March
Despite President Donald Trump repeatedly assuring the nation that a vaccine would be approved before Election Day, a key vaccine developer said Thursday that theirs won’t be released to the public until March at the earliest.
Stéphane Bancel, CEO of pharmaceuticals company Moderna, told the Financial Times that the company will be unable to request emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration until at least November. Guidelines mandate that trial participants be screened for at least two months after the vaccine is taken.
“I think a late (first quarter), early (second quarter) approval, is a reasonable timeline, based on what we know from our vaccine,” he told the publication, noting that vaccines by other manufacturers — such as Pfizer — may be out sooner due to a different trial procedure.
More than half of states: Higher cases, deaths
About every 2 seconds, another American tested positive in September, and about every 2 minutes another American died, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. But overall, cases fell 17.5% and deaths fell 21.1% from August totals.
Twenty-seven states reported more cases in September than they had in August, while 25 states, Guam and Puerto Rico reported more deaths. Epidemiologists have warned of a possible fall surge. In the latest two weeks, 23 states along with the District of Columbia and Guam reported more cases than they had in the previous two weeks. The rate of those new cases more than doubled in Alaska and North Dakota; rapid increases are also seen in Missouri, New York and Pennsylvania.
The U.S. has reported more than 7.2 million COVID-19 cases and over 207,000 deaths. Globally, there have been 34 million cases and 1 million fatalities.
Wis. hospitals fill, front-line workers alarmed
Almost 700 Wisconsin patients were in the hospital with COVID-19 on Wednesday, the state hospital association reported, nearly double what it was two weeks earlier. At ThedaCare in Fox Valley, where hospitals have been among some of the hardest hit, vice president and chief medical officer for acute care Dr. Michael Hooker said the surge of patients is happening much faster than they’d expected.
“We’re really fighting a war in the hospital,” he said, adding that the surge could overwhelm hospitals in as little as two weeks if not managed. The state’s top health officials said this week Wisconsin is nearer than ever to needing to open an emergency field hospital built in spring at the state fairgrounds.
Study: Mosquitoes cannot spread COVID-19
Researchers from Kansas State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that mosquitoes cannot transmit COVID-19 from an infected person to an uninfected person. They gave mosquitoes blood infected with COVID-19 and found that the virus did not replicate in the mosquitoes. “We conclude that (the) biting (insects) do not pose a risk for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans or animals following a SARS-CoV-2 infected blood meal,” researchers wrote in the journal bioRxiv. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed.
Wash. outbreak linked to spa resort
An outbreak in Washington state that has infected at least 25 people is linked to a spa. King County’s public health department is advising individuals who visited Salish Lodge and Spa in Snoqualmie between Sept. 16 and Sept. 30 to get tested and quarantine for two weeks. The spa has since temporarily suspended operations and is cooperating with the department on reopening efforts. “We have further intensified (safety) efforts by proactively partnering with Public Health – Seattle & King County to provide widespread and expedited testing for our team members, as well as engaging a third-party for full-property sanitization on top of our already elevated standards,” said spa manager Alan Stephens in a statement. The state has reported 87,522 cases and 2,126 deaths as of Thursday morning, per the state’s Department of Health.